My Biggest Writing Mistake: I Kept Thinking My Book Was Done
My Biggest Writing
Mistake: I Kept
Thinking My Book
Was Done
by A.E. Albert
“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.”
—Ernest Hemingway
I'm a reader. People had often told me I should write. My response, "I'm a reader, not a writer." So when I finally decided to take the plunge, I had no idea what I was doing.
It was trial and error every step of the way. I never read any writing articles or 'how to' books. I was as green a writer as there ever was.
Yet, I know this sounds crazy, but this is the experience I wanted. When I began my writing journey, it was about the adventure and exploration into the unknown. I actually wanted to walk the path blindfolded.
In the end I learned a lot. One lesson being, maybe it's not a bad idea to learn first from the more experienced. I don't regret the way I did things, but I would have been a little bit more ahead in the game.
Read: The 10 biggest Mistakes that New Authors Make
Read: The Top 10 Mistakes New Fiction Authors Make
Trial and Error
Anyway, I digress. The point is there were many holes in my writing plan. Today I'm only going to talk about one. After I completed each of my book drafts, I kept thinking I was finally done.
Well, I was done. Emotionally. Every writer knows the absolute exhaustion that writing can induce. So when I finished my first draft, please try and not laugh, I did a little dance and proceeded to give it to my sister to read.
This was not for correction you understand, but for the praise I so deserved. I'm actually blushing as I write this. As you can expect, she handed it back to me covered in yellow sticky notes.
My sister is a natural story editor. She could not have cared less about my writer's ego. She wanted my story to be its best. She told me what holes needed to be filled, where tension, humor, or action was needed and so forth.
So I made my changes, wiped the sweat from my brow and handed it back to her. Naively, I once again waited for the accolades my new and improved novel warranted.
As you can guess, I was once again dead wrong. I returned to my laptop, took a deep breath and made the corrections and add ins.
On the third try, I just knew I was done. I mean, I just knew it. Come on, how many times does a book need to be revised?
Finally! I Get it!
This time, not only did I have more revisions from my sister, but also from another beta reader. It was at this stage that I had finally began to learn the lesson.
Creativity and imagination are not good enough. Good editing and revisions are what takes your creation and translates it for the reader.
Without them, our stories would never be able to really venture out of our writer's minds and be seen clearly on paper.
This needs to be done countless times. A lesson I would have been familiar with if I taken the time to do a little research before I began writing.
Anyway, I finally realized that I had not finished my book when I thought I did. In fact, I was merely halfway to my final destination.
By the fourth revision, I finally embraced this stage of writing. I even asked four more people to act as beta readers so I could obtain as many opinions as I could.
The result was 100 more pages added to my manuscript. My scenes were fuller, my characters more vibrant and my ending significantly more fulfilling.
Quick Tips In Story Editing:
- Read your book:
- Read it aloud.
- Read it Backwards.
- Read it on printed paper.
- Get other people to read it for you.
- Look for lapses in logic.
- Take out anything not related to the core of your book.
- Look for areas that need more: humor, action, character development, etc.
- Consider alternate routes your plot can take and see if they work.
- Keep track of plot and smaller details. The reader will remember if you deviate.
- Make sure there is some type of conflict/resolution throughout your story.
- Dialogue should be natural and not necessarily grammatically correct. Their speech should reflect their character.
- Avoid cliches.
Characteristics of Good Beta Readers:
- They are readers.
- Pick someone who already likes your genre and the age group you wrote for.
- They are objective. They understand that just because they don't like something, it doesn't mean someone else wont.
- Opinionated with tact.
- They don't focus on typos and such. The issue is the plot, character, etc.
- Remember: I know we all use friends and family in the beginning, but get out there and find someone who you don't know. You can join local writers groups, workshops, look on twitter, writers blogs and there are loads of specific groups on social media. And when you find a good one, keep them.
I know, by the time you get to finishing your first draft, you just want to be done. Well...you're not.
But don't worry. Take a break and put your draft in a safe place until you feel emotionally and intellectually ready to tackle this next phase of book writing.
Trust me, it's worth it.
What mistakes have you made writing? Leave a comment.
Subscribe to our mailing list
You may be interested in the Following:
About A.E. Albert
What mistakes have you made when writing? Leave a comment.
Great post. I'm a reader too, been reading since before the 1st grade. I swear I was the book version of the cookie monster. Nowadays, with work and family there's less time to read, but every break I get, I do read. Anyways, when I first started (restarted) writing, I followed the experts and read the how-to guides. They were helpful in getting me started and solidifying what I already knew from all the years I was a reader. Yet, my issue is not knowing when I'm done. I'd hold onto my work, revising and editing X amount of times when I should let other eyes see it to make it better. Since I'm too close to my work, fresh ideas or room of improvement gained through feedback from beta readers/editors, is what I'll be working towards in 2015.
ReplyDeleteIf I've learned one thing from writing is that's it's not a solitary effort. We write for ourselves true, but we also write for readers. They are the best feedback. Of course, not every beta reader is the best at it. I like the one's who know that criticism is helpful, not telling me how great my book is. lol
DeleteYou show personality, Aimee, in how you write. And, having taken notice across your list of articles, you also don't fear to repeat certain facets about yourself.. Another virtue.
ReplyDeleteI experienced the same, with The Representative. There weren't any beta readers involved (there was no handing it to other people whatsoever!), but, there was the continual experience of not appreciating the distance that there was still to go.
It did make me ponder, reading "Creativity and imagination are not good enough. Good editing and revisions are what takes your creation and translates it for the reader..": I agree, a good story takes editing (even a lot of editing!), however, considering The Representative, and its own format of storytelling, is it not possible that we undervalue the role of creativity and imagination?
When it comes to editing, for example, perhaps a person only feels the need to edit so much because they're on the condition of the publishing industry.. write 50, 70, or 100,000 words, or your book won't be published!
This is the way that the issue of editing can strike at me. A state of things, which in its entirety isn't sincere, but merely "in substantial part" a condition that's imposed on us by the needs of commerce.
In any case, I repeat.. your writing illustrates identity.
Your editing goes according to the vision of your work. And spelling errors and poor grammar are not good in any piece of writing. Otherwise, story editing is a matter of perspective.
ReplyDeleteLol, oh man .. I actually at one point was counting how many times I'd revise a chapter to make sure the other capers where revised just as much. That's a good way to go crazy. Now I just put revised by the title and move to the next chapter, rinse repeat. I find the members of wattpad to be a huge help doing critiques on chapters, and now there are beta readers to. I am my own worst critic though and still haven't even handed my book over to a beata reader yet becasue I know some of what's wrong with it. I want to fix all that so they can find what I can't see.
ReplyDeleteIt's so scary giving your work to someone else to potentially slice and dice. But in the end it's worth it. I have since learned that writing a book is not a one man venture. On a side note, I've been meaning to check out wattpad myself. I've heard good things about it.
Delete