On Writing a Novel

It's official: I have written my first novel. This morning, I spliced all the chapters together and ended up with a word count of 48,300, just shy of my target of 50k. With a little bit of editing, I'm sure I will reach the goal. Let's have a look at what I've learned so far. 

First draft complete!

The Idea Versus the Market 

At the beginning, I had a great idea for a story. But unfortunately, it wasn't enough for a book. The first draft of Lies or Love ended up being just 31,000 words long - much too short to send to a traditional publisher. 

That's when I had to go back to the drawing board and to figure out how to add to the story to make it marketable. No matter how good your idea is, you're unlikely to be successful unless your work conforms with publishers' expectations. A book that is much too short will end up in the "discard" pile before it's even been read. 

Of course, writing over 50,000 words doesn't guarantee success. Only time will tell whether Lies or Love is good enough to be published. But by following the word count requirements, I am giving the book its best chance. 

Planning 

Lots of writing coaches and bloggers talk about the different planning strategies. Some people are plotters, and they work out every detail of their book before getting started. Others are discovery writers, who get started with an idea and see where it takes them. 

Personally, I'm more of a planner. I broke down Lies or Love into scenes, each one around 800-1,500 words long. This is a manageable amount to write in one sitting, so it worked well for me. Later on, I combined two to three scenes at a time to form a chapter.

To avoid word count worries in the future, I'll be sure to include at least fifty scenes in my next book.

The Hard Work Begins Now 

Writing is only about 10% of the process. The rest is planning, editing, getting feedback, researching agents and publishers, and collaborating with other authors. Now that I've finished my first draft, the real work can begin. Hopefully, I can turn Lies or Love into something readers won't want to put down. 

Have you ever written a book? If so, what have you learned? If not, would you like to in the future?