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What have you learned from writing your novel?
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I learned to understand when fanfiction writers when they do not update often because I'm one of them.
Well, I've learned quite a bit, and find I'm still learning. That's true Candy, you only learn to write the novel you're working on for the simple reason the story, and each book, changes as the characters grow and develop. Of course, if you switch genres, the new book will be completely different. You have to learn how to handle your material with each work! So far, I've written two blog posts comparing what the famous writers say about writing with my own dicoveries with my first attempt at fiction
Brushstrokes of a Gadfly*The First Novel~Lessons I Have Learned Along the Way
*The First Novel (Part Two)~ Lessons I Have Learned Along the Way
I've also discovered that writing the sequel is just as difficult as writing the first one!
Over the past three novels, I've learned that you need to write what you want to write, in the style you want to write it - not what you think is going to please readers, critics, and reviewers.Anything less than being true to yourself and the manuscript will show, and not positively.
It sounds seriously hokey, but I've been surprised to find it completely true.
I agree completely with Ian. It does sound like a cliché, but it's true. The novel should be in your voice, your style, your observations and disagreements, (as expressed through the different characters), or the story will ring hollow. Writing is at times a self-exploration, a type of experimentation on your own observations! I think readers want to read what the author has to say instead of what is 'geared' towards them. If they wanted something that completely agreed with their expectations, they can write their own book! Reading should broaden horizons.
E.A. wrote: "I agree completely with Ian. It does sound like a cliché, but it's true. The novel should be in your voice, your style, your observations and disagreements, (as expressed through the different ch..."When I write I give little or no thought to the potential audience. My only obligation is to provide as well written and edited a book as possible. There are writers who write to an audience or try to be commercial. I see nothing wrong with that per se but it is not for me. I like it when readers like my book and I do want it to be read. However, readers bring their own perspective and biases to any book. Any individual rating has to be taken with a grain of salt. Patterns of voting might be more instructive.The reader has a right to his or her opinion. Not everyone will like my books and that's all right.
I learned to write something I would like to read. I also learned that with every novel it gets easier and your writing improves to such a degree that you find yourself editing, yet again, the novels you have already finished. :)
I finished writing a novel in late 1996. Its the only novel I ever completed (17 years later and still not published yet). Its not a great novel, but it was very fun to write. I had to write it as part of obtaining a master's degree in creative writing from Columbia College (in Chicago).I learned a lot from that experience - mainly that I am NOT a novel writer (in the profesional sense of the word at least) because I find it nearly impossible to ever FINISH any of the novels that I am working on.
Since 1996 I have written about 5 or 6 "half" novels. But I have never come close to completing one of them. They are all stil "works-in-progress" and I like it that way. I mean, finishing a novel, seems like such a sad thing. How can you say good-bye forever to all this effort and motivation and fun that has gone into these novels? Even that one novel I finished in 1996 I had a start a sequel to a couple years later because I missed the characters AND the narrator so much, that I just couldnt part with them.
Candy wrote: "I've just finished my second novel!!! Hurrah! Neil Gaiman likes quoting his friend Gene Wolfe, saying "You never learn how to write a novel, YOU ONLY LEARN TO WRITE THE NOVEL YOU'RE ON ..."My sec..."
The rough draft is all adrenaline. The subsequent drafts are all muscle and grunt work.
I've learned how to keep the point if view with one person until it's time to move on.
NO such thing as too much editing. Not to rush. No matter how much I 'edit,' I need an editor. Always, always try to grow and evolve.
My second book was such a roller coaster I thought I'd blog about the things I learned while writing it - here http://notesfromtheslushpile.blogspot...
To anyone who's written a novel or is currently writing one - what have YOU learned?