One of the top questions I get asked now that my first book is out in the world is, “hEY BUT HOW DID YOU DO IT???”
And to this I say: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Okay I’m juuuust kidding. I do actually have about 13% of a clue what I’m doing. This is a staggering percentage and we are all in awe of it. (Hush. Act in awe.) I’ve basically been writing seriously for 9 years. I’ve been agented for 5 years and had a book published by Hachette UK for, ah….2 months. SO! I have a lot to learn still about being a published author. (I still rather feel like the child with muddy gumboots in a room full of Adult Authors.)
But I did get here. And I did do a lot of things that I truly think helped me get here. YES there’s a bit of luck and timing involved, but also freaking haaaard work. It’s easy just to say: “Oh look!! Cait has a big blog!! Now she has a book deal!! It came so easy for her!!”
Haha. Haaa hahahaha. No. I worked hard for YEARS so let’s see what I was doing, hmm?!
1. I WROTE MILLIONS OF WORDS AND OVER 30+ BOOKS
If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you’ll know I am a wild writer like this. In 2017 I wrote a million words (including outlines that went over 40K sometimes, and 7 novels…some of which were over 130K). That is a LOT OF WORDS. And truly, I needed them to learn how to write. Some might learn to write a lot faster than I did…but I needed SO much practise. All these horrible gnarly drafts (starting from age 15) got my to where I am = a published author.
Are these 30 drafts something you might read someday???
LMAO. They are not.
“So what was the point of writing them all??? Wouldn’t it have been better to write less books but write them better and work on them harder?”
Look this is a seriously good question. I did edit some and rewrite others. Actually the 16th draft I wrote was what became A Thousand Perfect Notes.
Personally, I needed to write a lot to learn. I wanted to experiment. I wanted to chase that glittery idea that probably wasn’t marketable. I had the time to do this and the energy, so like, why not?! I would NOT be writing how I am today if I didn’t have dozens of “practice novels” in the dust behind me.
Most of these novels are: (A) HORRIBLE because I wrote them when I was, um, smol and deluded, (B) some I’ve actually repurposed bits and pieces into newer novels, (C) they gave me a chance to experiment with so many styles and genres! I learned my favourites and what I didn’t like to write about, and (D) I might still go back to some of them!!
Nothing is wasted. They all taught me.
This doesn’t mean YOU have to write 30 novels before you’re published. The point is: WRITE WRITE WRITE. Don’t just write one book, write more. Don’t except yourself to be excellent now. Practise. If you write and it’s not as good as it was in your head? WRITE SOME MORE.
And heyyyyy = have fun with this, ok?! I have such fond memories of all these books and characters!
2. I LEARNED HOW TO REWRITE AND EDIT
This follows directly on from the last one but seriously: DO NOT JUST WRITE FIRST DRAFTS. You learn almost everything by rewriting and editing. Books aren’t writing, they’re rewriting. So if you’re dreaming of being an author and you’ve never learned to edit??? Goooo, fiend. GO. This is absolutely where you need to apply yourself.
3. I RESEARCHED PUBLISHING ALL. THE. TIME
People often think researching is sitting down for an hour and Googling around. WELL ACTUALLY. It’s something you kind of need to do…all the time. For years. I didn’t learn about agents and book deals and editing and submissions all at once. I learned it over several years with constant reading of author blogs, agent blogs, tweets, youtube vlogs and teaching sessions, articles, facebook groups, etc. etc. I just SUBMERSED myself in it as much as possible.
YES I asked real people questions…but mostly I learned by reading the information available online. There’s a lot. It’s hard to know where to start, but soon you click on one thing that leads to another and another and VOILA. You are gathering information. (You don’t have to do this ALL in one day!! So don’t be overwhelmed!)
PRO TIP: Don’t ask me “how do I get published” if you’ve never never researched for yourself. #siiiiigh (But I am VERY MUCH HERE to answer specific questions if you have them! And providing I can actually help!)
4. I LEARNED TO HUSH MY LITTLE SELF AND LISTEN
This is actually hard because you NEED to learn to listen and take on advice…but you also can’t listen too much. Like sometimes I absolutely freak out (STILL!!) because there’s so much to learn and know and remember and EVERYONE’S ADVICE CONTRADICTS. What can I write?? What can I not write?? Do you want this type of agent? Should you pitch? Query? Hire an editor? Get sensitivity readers? What country should you aim for? Should your debut be a series or standalone? Is your style marketable? If you get anxious about all of this, will you turn into a lizard? DoES ANYONE KNOW WHAT THEY’RE DOINGGGGGGG.
Anyway. It’s a trip to figure all that out.
But it’s still important to:
- Listen to what agents tell you (nope you are NOT the exception to a rule)
- Listen to what readers are saying (because they will point out things you didn’t think about, especially regarding content if you’re writing something not directly in your experience)
- Listen to what your writing buddies are saying (and GET SOME if you don’t have any! Seriously you can’t pick up all the problems with your novel yourself. There are always things that get left in your head and don’t make it to paper like they should. FEED BACK IS 100% THE BEST THING. Don’t be scared of it. Don’t hate it.)
- Listen to the trees. Most people say “why would you do that” but seriously you can say it’s important to sit in a forest and listen to the trees but in reality you can just take a nap. You deserve a nap. We all deserve a nap.
5. I READ UNTIL MY EYEBALLS FELL OUT
I can’t even saaaaay how important reading is! These are your BEST TEACHERS. If you ever get stuck with writing (“how the heck do I write an action scene?!”) read back through like 5 or so of your favourite books’ action scenes. ANALYSE them. You can do this for any type of scene! Dialogue. Characterisation. Description. Let books TEACH YOU.
You also need to read so you know (a) what’s overdone or trending or popular or avoided (probably for good reasons!), (b) what’s happening amongst your bookish peers, and (c) because it stops you turning into a goblin who eats children at night.
Also 10/10 you can buy books for “work now”. This is perfect. Nothing can go wrong.
I love how you described books as rewriting not writing. Like. Yesssssssss. Thank God someone said it.
It’s definitely so true!! No one writes a flawless first draft, right?!😂
I 100% agree that feedback is sooo important, but currently I have 12,000+ words of critique from only two of my beta readers. Overwhelmed. However, I love what you said about rewriting. Rewriting and editing has probably taught me more about the art of crafting a story than anything else has.
And reading is so helpful. I just finished a super badly written book, but even that helped me know what to avoid and how to avoid it.
Also, whenever I hear you talk about your publishing journey I just find it so helpful and inspiring! Hard work will get us somewhere. 🙂
omg that is…a lot of critiques! I would be freaking overwhelmed too. 😱 Good luck with it all though!! And yes for sure…like we think writing a first draft is the most important part, but honestly it’s just getting the bare story down. The real learning comes in polishing. (Obviously the first draft is SO important still. But it took me years to realise I needed to edit if I wanted to get better.😂)
(And YES. I even learn from bad books all the time! Or they spark ideas in me of how I’d do it differently hhaha.)
Aww I’m so so glad you like these posts!
The best writing advice I’ve been given (not personally lolololololololol etc.) was from Victoria Schwab is just to write the book you want to read, and not to care at all about marketing and other boring things.
And I individually edit each chapter once I’ve finished it so I don’t exactly rewrite and edit I just revise one small part excessively and then I don’t need to rewrite it a lot and that works well for me. And with that, the first time I write something it’s always terrrible and makes me feel negative and I get a kick from just writing words that sound good together. Oh, and your last tip, learning from other books, I really seriously annotated Strange the Dreamer (my favourite book yayayayaayayayayayayayayayaysysysyayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayay) and if I can’t write something somewhat moderately slightly kind of easily I’ll go there and just plaguerise one of the prose tabs a and then rewrite it to my style
THAT IS INCREDIBLE ADVICE! I do try to live by that one all the time too!! I mean, I think with traditional publishing, you do have to keep a balance in your head over what is marketable and what will sell/get agented. But you HAVE to write the thing that you love first. Or else the story has no heart, right?!
(Also Strange the Dreamer is a glorious MASTERPIECE.😍)
Ahhh, yes!!! I agree to all of this. Literally all of this. I’m honestly not sure whether I prefer drafting or editing. I definitely have a love/hate relationship with BOTH, if I’m being honest. I love drafting because it’s so damned liberating and I can let myself be crappy…but I also hate it because I can SEE the imperfections in it, you know? Whereas editing is such hard work, but also so rewarding to see the novel become the novel it’s supposed to be.
SAME THO.😂Like I used to be all “I love first drafts! The freedom is great!” And it is…but it’s also really frustrating?!😂 Everything is a mess, you’re not sure if the idea is even good, the outline is burning, the sky is falling afjdskalfd…first drafts are horrors. But they’re still somehow easier than editing?😂
I think the piece of writing advice that’s helped me the most is to consider the first draft as your detailed outline, and you need to re-write it out better. OOOOOO! And the advice where it’s all; don’t read what you’ve just written, don’t go back and check it, just keep flowing with the scene. Fix it laterz! (I couldn’t do this for a whole book though. A chapter, yes. More than that, NOoooOOO)
I have yet to finish a first draft…. Abandoned unfinished drafts are everywhere…… *nervous laughter*
BUT I am now determined to finish one, if only because I really want/need to learn how to edit. !!!!!!
Because I’ve only started become involved with the bookish/writer community, everything feels so new and scary and there are things I still get scared about. I recently learned what “WIP” stood for. I always called them either “drafts” or “The Thing” …. but there’s a real term for them. Now I know XD
10/10!! Inspiring post is inspiring! I feel like there is still so much I don’t know about publishing?? It’s like a spooky new planet no one ever told me about. I’ve gotta do a lot of research.
Ohhh I absolutely LOVE THAT ADVICE! It’s so true and spot on! Like often times I finish a first draft and get annoyed at myself for forgetting tons of details…but that’s totally alright! This is the skeleton and now it’s time to add to it!
(I can actually write a whole book and leave the flaws in.😂But it took me a while to go with absolutely 0% editing in first drafts haha.)
Aww you gotta finish though! It’s seriously the most important thing! And if it makes you feel better, I took FOREVER to learn anything about writing.😂I’d written about 6 books before I realised you could EDIT. Honest! I thought you had to write it perfectly the first time or scrape the whole book.😂I…can’t even omg.
YES YES YES to all of this!!! This is such valuable and true information. 😀 I know a lot of writers hope to publish their first book when they write it (this was me!) but really, it’s so important to keep working on other projects and other stories. And rewrite. Soooooo much rewriting. Realistically the first novel is the test run, and it’s precious in the sense of holding so many memories, but it’s a launching pad, not the final step!
Amazing post! <3
Eeeep you’re always so lovely and encouraging, Melissa!! 💛💛 And it’s definitely okay to want your first book to be published !! I should’ve mentioned that in the post tbh haha. I know many authors DO get their first books ever published! But I think the copious amounts of rewrites, the editing, and just the sheer amount of learning still have to fit in there somewhere right? And I know most people won’t have to write 16 novels before they sell one. 😂But I’m glad I did!
Love this! Wow, you’re a writing machine though! I’m more of a short story writer, with a few novellas. All of my novels have been waiting until I was finally ready to write them. Which I’m doing now. I so relate to all of this except the 30+ novels 😉
And right now, not surprisingly, short stories are getting accepted first 😉
I just won an amazon gift card. So . . . I bought your book and I’m excited to get it and read it 🙂
I remember it in a halfway between clearly and fuzzy: little me a year and a half ago, signing up to Joanna Penn’s mailing list because I heard she was good from my sister. (who isn’t a writer, so I don’t actually know why she even was there…) And then, Joanna did a collaboration with Nick Stephenson, and I was on his list. And slowly, I began growing the list of people I was subscribed to. And then I found someone who was a blogger through Pinterest and began following them, and so on. And then someone did a huge giveaway and I ended up with like 24 new people in my inbox and I spent the next few weeks going like, “Who are you and how did you get in my inbox??” Still don’t know who half the people who email me are lol. “Oh yeah, you’re the annoying one. Wait, aren’t there two of you??” “Hey, I remember you! Didn’t I sign up for the webinar with you that you held dURING MY SCHOOL TIME so I COULDN’T GO?”
Yay me. I’m buried in emails. I really need to be able to read through them more and unsubscribe from some people. 😂
I prefer rewrites or 1st drafts. I’m currently writing a first draft, and I HATE IT. Ugh, it’s such a mess. “You can’t edit a blank page” they say, “It’ll be fun” they say. Well this isn’t fun and I want to edit this page while I still have a blank scrap of a sanity left.
This is such a helpful post Cait! I have written two book manuscripts so far, but have been too daunted by the thought of editing because I have no idea of where to start. So I just keep starting different first drafts, but you’re so right in that editing is a thing that has to be learnt through practice, just like writing!
Great post! 🙂
Nice advice, I’ve been wanting to actually write but I keep procrastinating (but I do have a detailed outline of the plot, and then I keep procrastinating editing that even though looking back I would change quite a few things)
Also is there really one piece of writing advice that’s the best? I mean doesn’t it take lots of advice in order to do it? But my favorites I’ve heard are
-read a lot, especially in your genre I now know I want desperately to stay away from the girl who’s people where conquered is forced into a castle where she doesn’t want to be and has to pretend she’s somebody else but it turns out she discovers she has superpowers\is a princess\both, oh and there’s a love triangle trope
-write write and write some more, though this one I’m still working on . . .
-figure out which Hogwarts houses your characters belong in, not only does it tell you about your character it’s fun! Also I’m subverting the Slytherin=evil and Gryffindor=good thing by making my hero a Slytherin and the villain is Gryffindor
I’m still so excited for your book and looking forward to reading it. I read a chapter so far, and it’s beautiful, so whomever you sacrificed was totally worth it! I mean … all those words you wrote for practice. Yeah, that’s what I meant.
Writing for practice is SO IMPORTANT, and I wish more people knew that and knew it was okay to set things aside. I myself have a box full of book carcasses that will never see the light of day … and a couple that might. Maybe? It doesn’t always have to be fiction, either. I actually was really struggling at one point and took about 6-8 months off from my novel to write just fanfiction. I used it like a sandbox and played with things I knew I needed to work on in writing. I found my OTP and write my first romance things and some light smut, which I had never done. With the immediate feedback (and they are NOT shy about telling you what doesn’t work), I improved a lot and just experimented with different styles and figured out what worked and what didn’t. When I came back to my novel and did another draft, it was SOOOO much better.
Reading is also so important! It makes me sad when people say you don’t need to read to be a writer. Maybe some people don’t, but, one, why wouldn’t you want to, and, two, all the things you learn from seeing how so many other people approach it!
THANK YOU FOR THIS. This is exactly what I needed!! I feel like in my writing I’m at a “waiting game,” just trying to expand my platform and writewritewrite, and it’s frustrating. This was so helpful, thank you! Do you have any tips for balancing blogging/IG/nf writing with fiction? I want to be able to focus on fiction but it seems like it’s been on the backburner a bit since I’m busy writing blog posts, articles, and taking IG pics.
The best writing advice? Just sit down and do it! Like the book, No Plot? No Problem!, just get started. Write a scene that’s been on your mind for months, or the dialogue that you hear in your head. A book never has to be written in order from chapter 1-chapter 40.
Writing is definitely hard, and includes a lot of not writing–like thinking, plotting, reading other books, etc. I love both stages of writing (it’s fun to be in control of something!, and then rewriting to make it better). Thanks to NaNoWriMo, I have two books indie published, but sorry, they aren’t fantasy or sci-fi 🙂
Love your post!
30+ BOOKS GIRL YOU ARE A FREAKING MACHINE!!! But yes, writing more definitely gives you more experience. It’s true for blogging, too. I cringe whenever I look back at my old posts, but I don’t regret writing any of them. It’s nice to see how different my writing is back then and now. 🙂 And of course HECK YES TO READING. Reading widens your horizons, and it’s nice to see from others’ work what works and doesn’t work for readers.
Again, so proud of you, Cait! ATPN was amazing, and I can’t wait to read The Boy Who Steals Houses!!!
These are all such great tips! I feel like I have been working on my WIP fiveever, but I know that it takes time and this article was actually super encouraging to me. Thanks for sharing!
I’m so so glad it was helpful ahhh!! That makes me SO glad! And definitely keep going and don’t quit on your book. 💛 It’s actually kind of a relief knowing we don’t have to get it right the first time, right?!
Honestly, your writing advice is the best stuff I get (I usually just get stuff like “Give it time, try to write shorter stuff, etc.”), because it’s stuff that actually makes sense and that I actually wanna listen to xDDD
And ngl I have rarely ever finished a draft. I think the last finished draft was a shorter version of my Duct-Tape Heroes story, which I reread about two months later and DIED CRINGING (it was horribly rushed, made little to no sense story-wise, and the characters weren’t very well developed). So…. I’ve been working on revamping that and failing miserably. (no words have been written, it’s all in my headdddd)
I still die cringeing at my old books don’t worry. 😂And by “old” I mean WHAT DID I WRITE LAST MONTH. WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT.😂 Although that happens less so now than it used to?! So I think the more you do this, the more you can look back at your old work and not…die of mortal shame. (Lmao I was reading a 2015 draft last weekend and just about laughed myself into the grave.😂)
Get those words written though!! Then rewrite them!! You got this!!
I actually finished a short story draft yesterday, believe it or not! (A modern AU of my sci-fi story BUT STILL)
I plan on leaving it alone for a bit while I get other things done, and then go back and edit the heck out of it. xD
This is great advice. I’m my own worst critic and have been so hard on myself for writing because what I’ve written is nowhere near good enough to be an actual book… yet… but it’s encouraging to hear from someone who has a book published that you wrote and wrote and wrote, even writing 30 books. For some reason (probably anxiety) I had this thought in my head that authors are people who are perfect and capable of writing any book at any given point (even though I *know* this isn’t exactly true, at least not in the way my brain tells me), and I think I had that thought because of how much I doubt myself. This post has shown me that even published authors have struggled in the past, that not everything authors write is going to be published, and that nothing can substitute actually just doing it. If I want to get better at writing then I have to write. Thank you for sharing this!
Aww KELLY. I want to send you all the cake and hugs right now. 💛 Honestly I utterly get how you feel and I definitely know the feels of anxiety running havoc and telling us we’ll never get there. But it’s definitely for sure and certain that authors don’t write perfectly the first time. Or the second. Or the eighteenth sometimes. (For my book coming out next year, I had to massively rewrite it before it officially sold. STILL.) The process of writing and writing and getting better never ends tbh. Which is actually a relief that we CAN still get our publishing dreams and still be learning/not be perfect!
This is such a great post, thank you so much for writing it, Cait! I have yet to edit a book and I am terrified to do so, but I’m glad to know that I will learn so much from that, too. Hopefully I won’t want to tear my eyeballs out every two seconds hahaha 🙂 And yes to reading reading reading reading, it’s the best advice and… the easiest one, too, READING IS THE BEST 😀
Just have so much chocolate stockpiled for when you get to edits.😂Ah haha….Omg. Edits are hard! But SO satisfying and I think it gets easier as you figure out how you want things to go and look? I definitely have an easier time seeing what needs to be done now vs when I started editing.😂
This is all great advice, Cait! And a wonderful post in general. I’ve been doing a lot of writing recently but also a bit of editing which is probably what wears me out the most. The editing I mean because I usually just end up wanting to delete everything. I never do because I know I’d regret it later but reading this post has made me feel a little better, so thank you for that!
EDITING IS SO HARD. Honestly it makes me tear out my hear 87% of the time. It’s like you can SEE how you need the book to be, but getting it there is so hard?! Our WIPs are disagreeable children sometimes, I swear.😂 *sends you editing encouragement cake*
I will never say no to an editing encouragement cake! I’m currently working on 3 different WIPs and there are times when I feel like I’ll never finish these stories but thank you for all of the encouragement!
xoxo,
Brittany @ Brittany’s Book Rambles
Omg 3 at once?! YOU QUEEN.
This is sooooooooo helpful aaaaaargh! Feedback is so important, it’s also VERY important to have a bunch of really honest friends who won’t feel awkward about telling you how terrible your writing is!
Gorgeous post as always lovely and if you could publish all 30 of your novels right now THE WORLD WOULD BE GRATEFUL because A Thousand Perfect Notes was just sooooooooo good!! 🙂 xx
Grace Louise || http://www.gracelouiseofficial.blogspot.co.uk/
I think we need honest friends but also ENCOURAGING friends when it comes to feedback! I might just be uber fragile 😂 but I find I work best with positive criticism instead of like people telling me I’m terrible. You know?!😂
Afjsdkald thank you, but I PROMISE those other drafts are not all…even…intelligible.😂
The one thing I do to improve my writing is keep a diary! I can write in interesting conversations I had during the day that may make good scenes, write about what I think worked and didn’t work in books I’m reading, and get practice turning my rather dull life into something worth writing about. It gives me a reason to write every day!
That’s such a cool idea!! I sometimes write things down on sticky-notes on my laptop, but otherwise I just try to remember it. Which…you can imagine that fails like ALL the time.😂Good on you for keeping it organised in a diary!
I don’t know about best writing advice, there’s just so much of it.
What I do know is the one year I actually finished NaNoWriMo was the year that I had an outline done ahead of time. I tried again a couple of years later and failed. I guess failure is a learning experience too though. So this year, I’ve already been working on my NaNoWriMo idea for a couple of weeks, and we still have 2 1/2 months to go before I write down the first word.
I also like the idea of practicing. I write fanfiction, and I’m lucky in that I get to publish all my fanfiction for other people to read (which can be an ego boost because if someone says something, it’s almost always nice)… but I’ve found that the more I write, the more interesting my stories tend to become.
Outlines are AMAZING! It took me years to figure that out too…I used to write about 2 paragraphs of where I wanted my story to go…and I got so stuck and stressed all the time. But so many people told me that “outlines crush creativity and the muse”. Pfft. Goes to show how subjective writing is! Outlines work SO well for me!
Aww, it’s totally fine to need that ego boost! I was publishing on wattpad a few years ago and it seriously kept me motivated and focused to keep writing when I was having a really tough time. SO I am ALL FOR doing whatever we need to do to (a) improve, and (b) be encouraged to keep going!
Such a good post, Cait! Thank you!!
I’m not sure if I like writing or rewriting better . . . probably rewriting, because there’s already material on the paper for you to work with. You’ve gotten it out of your head, now it’s a mangled, twisted blob of plot and dialogue and character on the page, all you have to do . . . is . . . fix it.
(I think I was probably the only eleven-year-old in my friend group who researched literary agents.)
Ahh at least you knew to research agents! When I was 11 I thought you kind of just showed up at a bookstore and gave THEM your book and they’d put it on a shelf.😂I was…not the smartest 11 year old, lmao.
But yes, rewriting has so much more to work with?! And you get a better idea of what you’re trying to say!
This is so interesting! Also, I LOVED your Jude Law gif! HAHAHAHHAHAH, No…. 🙂 It makes me laugh so hard! I also liked that you talked about learning to silence yourself and listen to other people. While that’s been hard for me, I also have tried a little bit to do that and have noticed me learning more than I ever would have by talking. By making myself humble, I am learning more than I ever have before! Great post as usual Cait!
HE IS THE BEST IN SHERLOCK HOLMES.😂😂I love that movie so much haha. Ahem. But yes! I think it’s so important to learn how to listen too…like I often find myself getting defensive at being “told what to do” a lot, but sometimes people are speaking from a place of wanting to share and help and we NEED to listen. I’ve learned so so much over the last years being really active in the writing community. It’s helped!
Honestly I’ve been given so much writing advice at this point that it kind of just swirls around in my head in a big ball of WTF I have no clue what I’m doing. I think the best writing advice I’ve been given is that not every piece of writing advice works for every writer, and now I have a better idea of how I work as a writer, it’s a lot easier for me to filter out the stuff that other people might find helpful but that I know won’t work for me and to just focus in on the stuff that I do find helpful. Like so many people are outline, outline, outline and I’m like that’s all well and good for you, but I know me, if I sit down and try to outline what is going to happen in my story down to the minute details, I will never actually get any words on a page! So yeah, whoever it was that said not all writing advice works for every writer was definitely great for me because I’ve now learned how to filter the stuff that does/doesn’t work for me. See I thought I preferred first drafts, but that was before I got my critique partner and trying to figure out how the hell to edit was stressing me out, now I definitely find something satisfying about making my story better through editing, though I still love the rush of typing out my stories for the first time. Honestly, my favourite part of the writing process is generating shiny new ideas for stories!
Oh it’s definitely true that writing advice is VERY subjective! I know people who swear by the “write every day” but I can’t think of anything worse.😂 I sometimes think it’s good to try a lot of stuff then just ditch whatever doesn’t suit.
Yeah me too-I do not have time to write every day-at least not my novel, I actually do end up writing pretty much every day but it’s usually on my blog and my other journalism stuff, not my novel!
The best piece of writing advice I’ve ever received is “Your work isn’t perfect. Keep making it better.” And, honestly, I don’t EVER want to be at the point where it’s perfect, because I won’t have anywhere to go from there.
And I generally hate first drafts. I have no idea where they’re going, and I’m so lost. Rewrites for the win.
I mean I kiiind of would love to be perfect someday.😂But I KNOW it won’t happen haha. But it honestly is a bit of a release to know you’re not expected to be perfect…you can focus on creating a messy story that you can work on!!
(First drafts have been killing me this year.😂)
Cait is sharing her secrets! Pretty much excatly what I thought they would be. Hardwork, research, and lots of reading and writing. Love this post!
Yes definitely not too many surprises here.😂But probably good reminders haha, right?! For me too tbh.😂
Honestly? I think the best writing advice is to just write and write and write and write some more 😂 It’s the only way to get practice and get better and better at writing, and to learn from your mistakes! I have so many cringy unfinished first drafts stored away, but I love every single one of them because the process of writing them helped me learn so much about writing, what works and what REALLY DOESN’T work 😂I wouldn’t be where I am now if I hadn’t written them (and I know there’s still so much for me to learn lol). Also I’d experiment with different styles: first person, third person, past tense, present tense, fantasy, contemporary, sci-fi; I’m only now starting to work out what my writing style is like (after spending around three years thinking third-person past-tense is the best for me, I’ve suddenly realised that writing in first-person present-tense comes a lot more naturally to me?! I don’t even know).
Andrea @ https://spaceshipsvampiresandsecretagents.blogspot.com/
AGREED SO SO MUCH!! It’s what’s got me where I am for SURE. Which is why I get frustrated when people are ready to quit after writing one book. I mean!! Of course it’s not going to be good…you have to practise?! Like literally any other skill.😂 And I love the freedom of experimenting and such. It’s so freeing and exciting and I’ve discovered a LOT about myself with all these crappy drafts in my past. (Omg present tense is the best right?! I discovered 3rd person/present was MEEEE. But only after writing a lot of different other styles!)
Just a fun little story about getting people to read your work, when my brother was in grade school his teacher was trying to publish a middle-grade novel, so he gave a manuscript of the book to my brother to read. To this day I remember everything about the book (it was pretty good), but I can’t discuss it with anyone because no one else has ever read it 😂. I prefer rewrites/edits over first drafts 100000000%, everything can be improved, so why not submit the best?
Omg that’s funny though!! Pity the teacher never got it published, but like at least he was trying ahh!! (And I do prefer improving my work with 2nd drafts and such.😂More pressure but also WAY more satisfying.)
This was really helpful, I totally agree with all your points! I definitely feel like I don’t set aside enough time for writing 🙁 I think some of the best writing advice I’ve been given is just to keep writing and not give up; you don’t know how far you can go if you don’t even try.
I completely agree with that advice! Honestly, it’s the quantity of writing that’s helped me get better!!
Teach us your ways Cait! 😀 I love reading author blogs and posts about how they found their agent, or how they wrote seventeen god awful books never to see the light of day before writing the one that became their debut. Learning from the experiences of other writers is so important, and reading voraciously in your chosen genre! Love this little insight into your journey to publication 🙂
aww I’m SO glad you liked this!! And honestly I love these kind of posts from other others too!? I like knowing how many ways there are to achieve the same goal. 😍
Great feedback – both insightful and hilarious ha-ha! I’ve always wanted to try writing my own novel or even write out my own poetry, but I get so overwhelmed and I get nervous to be judged (I have to get over that ha-ha). It’s great to hear some good tips and tricks!
Aww thank you for reading!💛I’m so glad you liked it eeep. And omg I totally think you should try! Seriously the anxiety over it never really goes away, but it’s so so worth it to have written and finished something!!
Great tips! Thanks so much for sharing! I still need to read your book…I can’t wait, but I also have sooo many books sitting there to be read! Gah!!!
Aww I’m so so glad you read my book!💛 THANK YOU. IT MEANS THE WORLD.
Thanks for sharing your wisdom with us! 🙂
I definitely like to know as much as I can about publishing and writing, because I’m the kind of person, who always wants to know what I’m getting myself into, so I learn as much as possible!
Aww thank YOU for reading!! I hope you get here someday soon!!
I really love reading posts like this because the ways writers write are so varied. Like, for me, I do not rewrite. That’s because I am a pedantic little mushroom who likes to line edit as she goes, yay. Which also makes me hate myself because every time I sit down to write I know what’s coming, and it’s not pretty. So yeah. Editing… I don’t love it? But I know it’s a necessary thing that you have to do so I do it. I DO IT. But I do balk when people say they rewrite whole novels. I don’t even know how??? Like, all those words! But writing is so personal, so whatever works for you is what works, right?
I remember when I was querying back in 2014 the research did my head in. I researched so much about how to write the query letter, how to write the blurb that goes IN the query letter, how to format the query letter, how to write and format the synopsis if the agent wanted it. And then I researched every agent I queried, from the house they were in, what authors they’d signed, their wishlists, and of course their guidelines. I was all so… painful. *crying* And ended up with nothing on my end but heartache and break, yay. But I gotta get back to it one day and that research wasn’t for nothing, I guess? TINY SILVER LINING.
I so so love that writers can have SO many different ways of going about working on a project. 💛It’s actually kind of seriously magical in itself!? But hey you don’t have to do anyone else’s process but your OWN. Although tbh I’ve hated many parts of my process before and tried doing different things to see if it’d make it better? Like I had to sTOP myself being a perfectionist in 1st drafts (not saying everyone should do that! But it was killing my creativity to try writing like that personally😂).
and aww , I really feel for you with the querying. Querying SUCKS. I hear of people getting all these, like, actual rejections BUT I DIDN’T EVEN GET THAT. I swear, I got like TWO rejections and the rest where just NOTHING. No closure. 😭But it just takes one yes!! I really hope you query again sometime because I want to read your books. 💛💛
This is a great post! I am always so fascinated in all the behind the scenes stuff. Everyone has such a different journey to publication but the one thing I always see in common, is years and years of freaking hard work. Congratulations on all your hard work paying off! 🙂
I especially agree with the learning to edit point. Writing a book is a very difficult thing to do, but learning the skills needed to then edit that draft it into a real story is one of the most important parts of that process, and can’t be ignored. I really tried to ignore it for awhile, and then one year I realised I was shooting myself in the foot by not learning that stuff, and never having my manuscripts being as good as they could be if I just worked a little harder. So I read EVERYTHING I could find about editing and joined a writers group and forced myself to learn.
I am so glad I did it.
Only I wished I had woken up and done it sooner! 🙂
Ahh thank you, Poppy! I’m really glad you enjoyed this post and aHHH SAME TO YOU!! For all the hard years of work paying off with your debut next year! And absolutely yes. We HAVE to learn to edit and it sucks, but it’s really such a crucial step in learning how to write!
Hi Cait! I have missed so many of your posts due to school. Sorry! Have some cupcakes and a ship run by goblins who eat chickens. This list is so true, and I am not an author of a book. My English teachers have somehow taught me well, except I have been daydreaming in class since Day 1. I love how you wrote that writing is essentially rewriting and editing everything you thought was cool. Thanks for sharing some tips!
Aww don’t be sorry!! I’ve actually been on total hiatus so I should be saying sorry for such a slow reply.😂 I’m so glad you enjoyed this post!
Best advice: My undergrad Creative Writing Lecturer
1. Good writers read. Specifically, read material that’s similar to what you’re working on. Not to copy but to get ideas.
2. Remember to read for fun every once in a while.
She actually took us outside for class one day and we just read and spoke about reading. Our task was to engage with a book that calls out. We didn’t have to finish it, or start with chapter one. It was super cool. Sometimes you just need to pick up a book, read a paragraph here and there, laugh or cry or whatever and put it down again. No pressure.
Every time I comment here I get inspiration for a blog post. (hee hee hee)
I prefer edits. First drafts are hardest. They’re like waking up early on for a sunrise hike on a saturday morning or something similar that seemed like a good idea when you weren’t all warm and cosy and asleep.
First drafts aaaare pain. AHHHH.😂Although I confess I actually like pre-dawn hikes haah, but edits are…the painful messy version.😂
This is all very wisdomatic! I especially love what you said about how even if something never gets published it still COUNTS because it’s PRACTICE. The journey matters, and that’s so important to remember. It’s not like we can sit around afraid to write something until we can do it perfect- that won’t work. We have to learn to fail before success is even possible. We just have to keep writing. And every word means something, even if no one else ever sees it!
Great post!
AHHH ACCUSING ME OF WISDOM?! I AM HONOURED. *twirls majestically* 😂 Ahem but yes yes! I’m so glad you agree! I think like the journey often sucks because it’s SO full of being unsure and insecure. Like I didn’t have a very good pre-publishing journey because I was SO freaked I’d never make it. So I won’t tell people not to stress (lmao we all WILLLLL) but it’s just important to keep going, tbh. I think often people quit when it CAN take several manuscripts to get you there!
Love this Cait. They say you can’t make a good writer out of a bad reader and we all are in awe of how you read. So glad to see you chasing your dreams now. Oh wait, not chasing. Riding your dreams now.
Omg I love that saying! SO true! I think writers sometimes underestimate how much we need to consume what we’re trying to output!!
(ALSO YOU’RE TOO LOVELY RESH THANK YOU.)
Cait, you are not just inspiring but also very helpful. Your suggestions are on point and at the same time very do-able. Keep doing what you do!
PS I loved your book <3
AWww thank you! And I’m SO SO happy to hear that. It makes me really glad if I can share some of the things I’ve learned?! (And omggg thank you for reading ATPN!!)
Cait, I’m so relieved that you reminded me to do EVEN MORE reading cos honestly I was starting to turn a bit green and get pointy ears and I was pretty much on the verge of turning IRREVERSIBLY INTO A GOBLIN FOREVER.
Also, can I just say I think it’s incredible that you’ve written so many books to hide in your draw and never see the light. That takes FREAKING COMMITMENT. And it’s also super fantastic that you gave yourself the freedom but also the maturity to not be like “NO I have ALREADY written a book I am FINISHED and I INSIST that THIS is the thing that will be published I WILL REFUSE TO WRITE NEW THINGS UNTIL SOMEONE PUBLISHES MY INCREDIBLE FIRST EVER MANUSCRIPT!!!” Keep up the amazing and inspiring 120% effort 😊
I weirdly actually really love the editing process, it’s definitely the first drafting that I’m trying to train myself into loving more! It’s the curse of the inner editor, mine is filled with glee whenever I let it out and the rest of the time it’s just like “well if you won’t let me edit as you go I SHALL ALSO BLOCK ALL YOUR POWERS TO THINK OF COHERENT SENTENCES AT ALL! mwahaha!!!”
I’M HERE TO SAVE LIVES, MADDY. SO YOU’RE VERY WELCOME. *twirls majestically and saves the world from goblins*
Aww thank you haha. 😂It is nice to see all my crappy drafts as commitment instead of “OMG SHE TOOK FOREVER TO LEARN TO WRITE”😂. And honestly I think one of the most important things to learn as a writer is actually: flexibility and teachablity. (Shh that last one isn’t a real word but ahem.) Because you have to learn to listen to people who are more experienced AND be willing to change. Although know when to not change your vision completely. It’s a weird balancing act.😂
Omg inner editors are SO fun aren’t they *sobbing* 😂
You make me think that maybe someday, I could do it too. Just picked up your book a few weeks ago…can’t wait to read it:)
YOU COULD!! And also omg thank you so so much for buying my book!! 😍
I really love this post. As a writer I sometimes feel discouraged when things aren’t happening in the time table that I hoped for myself, but after reading this I’m setting a new goal to write and read more (and every day) so that I can improve my skills!
Aww I’m glad this helped, Taylor! I don’t quite believe in writing “every day” 😂 though so like don’t stress yourself over that too much! But just doing these things in quantity IS SO GOOD. And timetables, gah, I’m pretty sure none of us ever follow the ideal timetable. But as long as we get there, right?!
I think I might be right on track with the reading until my eyeballs fell out! I’m always reading, but not quite as much as you 😉 I also worked online as an editor for a bit so I feel like editing and rewriting are part of my body and being and shall never leave me. I think I need to write MORE though, if that’s possible for me. I need to give writing more time and more focus in my life. I also don’t really research publishing often so that’s another place for me to improve. Thanks for the tips!
Ahh that’s amazing you were doing online editing too! That would help so so much for your own writing, right?! And I absolutely agree that just writing in copious quantities does a LOT for your style/quality…and also feeling confident I think!? Which is great.😂
I love this list. I especially like being able to use the research excuse for reading and buying books. 😉 Learning how to approach editing a novel in a way that works for you is probably one of the hardest and most time consuming out of all these. Because like writing, you’re not going to get it write the first time, and while writing has beta-readers who can see the holes in your plot, there’s not too many people who come to look at your personal editing process to say, “what are you thinking?!” when you’re naively doing things the hardest way possible. XD
I know right!? It’s like “THIS BOOK BUYING IS WORK. I’M FINE.” 😂😂 10/10 why I chose this career for sure ahem. And omg I love my betas and CPs…the stuff the point out is so stupidly obvious 😂 WHY DIDN’T I SEE IT EARLIER?! I think we writers are usually way too close to our work and our brains fill in the blanks we leave!
Aha I looked back at this draft I’d written last year, in the space of 10 days I’d written an outline as you’d call them. I tend to call them either a foundation draft or skeleton, cause it contains the key scenes and would be enough for me to flesh out, change edit. Yeah so I looked back on that…I felt like running. Like as far as I could away from it, because my world building leaves something to be desired, and I apparently felt like torturing myself cause it’s dystopian and I need to brush up on genetics…cause I decided to do something with that. *melts into puddle*
HOW DOES ONE WORLD BUILD? hahaha I think I’ve gotten a lot better with character arcs, fleshing out characters but erm…gotta work on my world building. I think I prefer at the moment writing first drafts, cause it’s ok if they’re a total mess. Future me has to deal with that mess – right xD But I also like editing, and rereading through stuff just not…when it’s a hot mess haha.
Okay but if it makes you feel better (iT PROBABLY WON’T!??!) I often die at world building too. 😂But also, hey you don’t have to world build perfectly in the first draft! You have time! And often I find it easier to world build in later drafts because you’ve already got the important plot/character arcs settled, so you can like build in the world around it.
I love your post about writing because they make me feel not so alone as a writer. I have a question, how was your path as a foreign writer? From getting and agent to getting a publishing contract, what were the implications you faced in the process?
I’m glad you enjoyed this post, Abril! Thank you!
I think my publishing process was honestly pretty normal. I queried, I signed an agent, we went on sub = book deal. (I mean LOTS of angst and retrying books and rejection in between that.😂) But yeah I’ve had no issues being an Aussie but with an agent in the UK.
Love all this advice, Cait! Learning everything you can is so important. I remember when I started writing, I thought you just wrote and book and then sent it out to people and then hoped they wanted to publish it. I had NO idea what goes into the self-editing process, peer editing process and querying process. I know I still have a lot to learn of course, but I feel like every day I learn something new!
Ahh I thought that too!😂I thought you just took it into bookstores and they printed/bound it and sold it…oh wow I had NO IDEA ABOUT ANYTHING.😂
I releate to this a lot. If I look at my past works, I’ve plenty if short old novel (that I’m planning to transform in actual book) and the super old drafts on my actual WIP.
Sometimes I worry a bit because I’ve heard many writers talking about how they never published their first book. It makes me think about my actual work, which is definitely dear to me and was ree-shaped by time.
Like… it’s nothing, not even slightly similar to the first drafts. I think I re-wrote it like six times and everytime it was a diffrent book. And even now. despite havinmg reach the final plot form, I’m missing something. But I don’t want to drop, since I’m also absorbing a lot of my country issue in the WIP
I need to find some new beta readers, because despite trusting them, I also need someone else to confront with. And I think I’ve found some people. It would be also a challenge because English is not my mother language and I feel like my style switch a lot from Italian to English.
I definitely think your first book doesn’t HAVE to be something you never go back to! I actually have gone back to work on my first-ever-book this year. 😂The draft has changed SO much from when I was 15, so it’s hardly the same book. But the nugget is there and it’s a story I can’t really let go of! So yay!😂
And it’s definitely hard to get the balance of betas who’ll help you improve + cheer you on + be tough sometimes.😂