The Bad News Is, You're On Your Own

Oh, that little rash of encouragement here on The Penslayer?  It's gone.
Okay, but hold up.  Stay with me a second.  Because you want to know why I think you don't know how to write a novel.  Is it because Jenny has finally unlocked THE SECRET to writing THE PERFECT NOVEL, and you all are ignoramuses? (Considering I couldn't spell "ignoramus" without help, I doubt that's the reason.)  Spoiler alert -

i don't know how to write novels either

Okay.  What's going on here.  When am I going to jostle you in the ribs and say, "Just kidding! You're actually doing just fine and you've totally got this"?  Well, probably never.  Maybe.  THE THING IS - I keep working so hard at my craft, always second-guessing myself and struggling and tweaking and wrestling to get my scenes and my plots and my stories and my life JUST EXACTLY PERFECT.  I look at other authors and I think, "They've arrived.  They've got this.  I've just got to get where they are."  And I keep struggling.

Struggling, pushing yourself, I'm 100% for that.  But the lie is in that mentality of, "I've got to just get where THAT PERSON IS and then I'll have made it" because 

none of us knows what we're doing andyou never actually learn how to write "a novel"

Yeah, sorry.  It's true.  But here's the good news!  (Aren't you glad you stuck around this long?)  None of us knows what we're doing, but we get better at interpreting the forecast of our lives and making what adjustments we can.  You never learn how to write a novel, you just get better at recognizing problems and how to fix them.  {{EVERY NOVEL IS DIFFERENT (or bloody well should be), and you are always learning anew how to write the one you're on.}}  There is no secret formula to writing a novel.  Obviously there are key components that make for a good story - engaging characters, connection with the characters' plight, their goals, actually caring if the characters get what they want in the end - but you can't just unlock the secret to the novel-universe and walk away with the one-size-fits-all formula.  Because there isn't one.  Every. single. novel. will be a totally new deal. With no mistakes in it.  No mistakes in it YET.

Take that idea that one day you're going to have this all figured out, and throw that idea out the window.  Boom.  It's gone.  Now that you've cleared a path from the door to the window, you can start organizing the rest of the mess.   View each novel as new, fresh, with the humility of knowing that you don't know how to write it.  You won't know how to write it until you've written it.  That's the weird paradoxical fact of writing, folks.  Stop thinking that one day you'll "arrive."  You won't.  Each novel will be a brand new relationship, a brand new struggle, a whole new world, just waiting for you to hurl yourself in free-fall style and hope that maybe you'll remember where the catch is on your parachute.  

and maybe one day i'll learn how to keep my analogies from running all over the place. one day. maybe.