Monday, June 17, 2013

Tough Lessons

There is this wonderful maxim in writing--I have no idea who said it first--that the best way to write a novel is to start writing and continue until you're done.  Then, put it away and never look at it again.  The last step is to write a second novel.

I'm not completely certain if this is the best way to learn how to write a novel, but I know that is the way I have learned how to write--unintentionally.

The first novel I wrote was horrible.  I may go back and revisit some of the others I have written at some point (none are published), but the first, I will never go back and look at it again.  It was truly--but only--a learning experience.  The piece was first person, epistolary narration, present tense with dropped first person subjects, and it was generally intentional and horrible.  The first person narrator was an alcoholic journalist, and although he was in the center of plenty of action, he saw himself as having no role in the events of the plot.  He thought he was an observer with no past and no future.  His rambling journals show how he processed the difficult events while limiting his own involvement (i.e. "Walk down Lafayette and watch for police.  As many people are in this town, think more police could show up to control crowds like this.  Something could blow up, but am just looking for the woman.")

Everything about the novel was planned and intentional.  I knew what I was doing before I wrote a word.  But when I started workshopping the novel with the writing group, no one "got" it.  I didn't try to explain it, but I stuck to my intentions, thinking I was right.  I had intended everything to work a certain way.  I knew I was frustrating the readers.  But I was the writer.  Stick to my guns.

In the end, I learned a really difficult lesson.  As much as I cared about working out an interesting and difficult POV through a complicated and wonderful narrator, it wasn't fun for readers.  And if I was really honest with myself, it was only fun to write for the first 40 pages, and then the POV grew tiresome to write.  After 200 pages, I was proving some weird point to myself--proving to myself that I could finish a novel and proving that I could complete a difficult POV, but really, I'm not sure what I was trying to prove.  It was just frustrating to anyone who tried to read it (oh, yes, this is a backwards apology to everyone in the writing group who had to endure that agony), and when you are in a good writing group with whose critiques you generally agree, you need to trust their opinions--especially if the opinions are about your own writing.

Even though I won't look at that painful novel again, I don't look at that work as a failure.  I learned way too much.

I needed to learn that writing shouldn't be about proving you can do some challenging experiment in writing.  It should be fun to read and it should be really fun to write.  When writing ceases to be fun for me, then I know I'm doing something wrong.  Worse yet, if I forget that I may at some point share my work with someone at sometime in some distant future (don't hold your breath), I don't want to annoy the people that take the time to read what I have to say.

Writing should be fun.  And interesting.  For me.  For anyone who gives me the time to read what I write.


  1. Okay, Heather! Now you have me wanting to read that novel. I do agree with you that a writer should always have the reader in mind.

  2. Yep. Writing, drawing, music; anything you create should be a fun experience.

  3. i'm going to preface this with saying everything i write is too long; everything. i'm generally of the opinion that if you're going to sit down you may as well empty your entire brain out.
    but, i think if you don't want to change or rewrite your first story but you still want to make some use of it you should write another half to it. find an opposite angle or character and weave it in and switch off the chapters.
    i wrote a very weird story once where two people are trapped on a desert island and having completely different experiences. the woman was convinced the man was trying to dominate, control or eventually kill her. the man just wanted to try to do things like start a fire and find fresh water, and ignore the crazy woman.
    if you think your group members had a hard time following the first part of your story, that you wrote just for the fun and challenge of it, write something that captures the (supposed) lost feelings of your audience. annoyance and confusion are always funny, behind the fourth wall.