3 Things No One Tells You About Writing Your First Book
Today I'm sharing three things that no one tells you about writing your first book. I've written three books over the last few years, and I've coached many others to write and complete their books.
When working with writers, I find there are some things no one ever talks about in writing classes and writing groups, and when they come to me, I find there's some things I need to debunk. So in this post, I'm going to share some of these things.
#1: You can’t write your book based on peer feedback in a writing class
I want you to pretend for a minute that you are an aspiring pilot and you've just shown up for your first day of flight school.
You walk into the flight school room and there are a bunch of other aspiring pilots in the room. The instructor says the way you're going to learn how to fly a plane is that you're all going to talk about how you think you should fly a plane. You’ll give each other feedback on your ideas about how you think you should fly a plane, and we'll see how long it takes to figure out how to correctly fly a plane.
Maybe eventually you'll figure out how the control board works and what to do with the throttle and so forth, but that would be an incredibly inefficient way to teach people to fly a plane, right?
It would probably set these aspiring pilots back a quite a ways potentially, depending on who was in the room, with no expert chiming in on how to actually do this thing that everybody's trying to learn. It's just throwing a bunch of newbies into the room and telling them to give each other ideas.
That's essentially how most writing classes in America are run today. So the first thing that's never really talked about is that you can't write your book based on your peer's feedback in a writing class. You just can't.
A book is a huge undertaking. You know this. You may have done it or started doing it, or you're at least thinking about doing it because that's why you're here. A good target for a first draft of an adult novel or memoir is 70,000 words minimum. That's a lot of words.
You're unlikely to make it to 70,000 words if you're writing to please other people. You're also unlikely to make it to 70,000 word if you keep stopping to integrate the feedback that you've received, whether it's from peers in a writing class, or even from an instructor in a writing class.
It's way too easy to lose momentum and momentum is what gets that first draft done. I'll say that again. Momentum is what gets that first draft done.
#2: Feedback is a learned skill in both giving it and receiving it
And this brings me to the second thing that no one talks about in most writing classes, which is that feedback is a learned skill, and I mean both giving it and receiving it. Both are learned skills.
Most writing classes are built around peers giving each other feedback when everyone's a novice or close to it. But they don't actually teach the writers in the class how to give or receive feedback. So it's basically the pilots in the room guessing how to fly a plane, and this is damaging.
For example, telling someone who is in the middle of a draft that you don't like something they've written. That isn't useful. Even if you wrote the perfect book, just pretending for a second that such a thing exists, even if you wrote that book and you published it, there would still be people who don't like it.
You can't write a book that everyone is going to like, and you shouldn't try to do that. It's also not useful to tell a writer mid draft things like "This scene should be shorter."
Why should it be shorter? Maybe it's a long scene. What are you basing that advice on?
Writers who aren't trained in giving feedback will often give advice without giving the reason behind that advice. And the reason behind the advice is the most useful part that you want to be listening for.
Why did you think that scene was too long? The reason maybe was that you got bored. Okay, well, that's helpful to know that you were bored in this part because I need to know that. But I may not even want feedback at the beginning of the draft because I'm still figuring out what this story even is.
In terms of receiving feedback, writers need to know, and are rarely told, that you do not need to take everyone's reactions and advice to heart, and you shouldn't.
If the idea of integrating a particular piece of feedback doesn't excite you, if it doesn't make you think, oh, this is going to make my book better, then you shouldn't take that piece of advice. This brings me to the third and most important thing that no one talks about in writing classes.
#3: Your book has to come from you, and you alone
The third and final thing that no one talks about in writing classes is that your book has to come from one person. Only you. You have the vision.
You may be thinking, yeah, but I don't know if it's good. I don't know if my idea is good. I don't know if I'm doing it well. Shouldn't I get some feedback before I spend the next six months to a year working on this?
Yes. Fair point. But I recommend that when it comes to feedback you get in the middle of your draft or early in drafting, you stick to getting it from professionals because they've been trained in giving feedback.
By professionals I mean a writing teacher or an editor. On occasion, maybe even a literary agent. These people usually, and I won't say always, but usually know how to talk to a writer in the middle of a project. They know to ask the right kind of questions and not give advice without sharing the reason behind that advice.
A fellow novice writer, though, doesn't necessarily know how to give constructive mid draft feedback. They need to learn how to do that. And you never know who has learned how to do that. So it's just safer to stick with expert feedback.
But even when it comes to expert feedback, your book has to come out of you. And I don't just mean your fingers. It's going to spring from your imagination.
So you have to train yourself to honor your imagination over any feedback anyone else gives you. I know that's hard to do. I've struggled with it myself. It's really hard to do, but it's important to train yourself how to do it.
Yes, learn how to write better through craft lessons or craft classes or books. Find teachers like myself to guide and teach you. But, ultimately, no one else's process template or helpful feedback is going to give your book a beating heart, and your book's beating heart is what's going to sell it. And that's entirely up to you.
It's in you. I know you know this, but you may just need a reminder.
Ready to write your book?
So here's one more unsolicited opinion. I think those writing classes that I just kind of criticized are often taught that way because the teacher isn't teaching a system for actually getting it done.
Well, I have a system to teach and you can learn it right now in a free training. I've put together a program that shows you how to write your dream book with a full-time job and a life.
All you have to do to get it is click below and apply for my program, the Book Incubator. It's only two questions. It'll take under five minutes. There's no obligation to join the program, but if you're admitted, I'll send you this training on the exact process I use to write my novels and you can watch it right away.
