Screaming, Crying and the Odd Burst of Inspiration: On Writing my Novel

Why is it that the moment you need to write about something you did, your brain just dies? I don’t know what number draft this is for this entry but it’s not a low number.

Which probably says a lot when you consider I’m talking about my writing…

I swear I’m better with the creative stuff!!!

The main problem for me is: what is there to say?

I could go on about my process, or my world or my characters. I could tell you how long it took me – longer than it should have due to long breaks – or what inspired it.

But you’re not interested in that and it won’t help anyone. It’ll just be an exercise in talking about myself. Which I’m not great at anyway.

Dreams of Fire was my first novel and I’ll be querying it soon. It’s a YA fantasy that owns my heart and I hope to one day write the sequel. But since starting the first one I’ve come to the realisation that there’s no point if I’m not going to do anything with it.

And that’s one of the most important lessons I’ve learned.

I’ve come from writing fanfiction for the sake of wanting to see more of my ships to working on something until it’s as perfect as I can make it. Where I used to edit things myself in a single night, I’ve learnt to spend months reading and sharing and editing to catch even the smallest problem.

The other thing I’ve come to realise recently is that you can’t work on a single thing forever. My first novel is special to me and I’m really hoping to do something with it. If not through traditional publishing then…something. I love this world and these characters and I want you all to love it as much as I do.

But I haven’t gotten there without a lot of stress and tears. Writing might be fun a lot of the time but the moment you’re stuck on a screen or sit down to edit your third draft…it gets frustrating. You kind of wonder why you’re doing this and that’s okay.  Because it’s supposed to be work to some extent and let’s face it, if you want something to be good you have to work at it until you hate it with a passion. Or that’s what the main consensus seems to be.

I think basically what I’m trying to say is if you want to write something well then edit, edit, edit and don’t worry if you don’t like it much after a while. Either you’ll grow to love it or it’ll be time to move on to something new.

I thought I’d have more wise lessons I’ve learned than this but there we go. I want to get this out there so have my ramble