So you wrote a book…

You did it! You did the hardest thing in the entire world!

Just kidding, but yeah, writing a book is HARD WORK.

I just finished writing my seventh novel (not to be confused with all of the half-baked and 10-30K word documents in my “writing” folder on my laptop), and that is pretty bonkers to me. Maybe to some people, that’s not that many, but there are a multitude of reasons I can’t churn them out. For example, my first couple of ideas, frankly, weren’t that great! And I didn’t know very much about craft or about life, so they took eons to complete. And they’re not very good at the end of the day.

I still love those stories, though, and I love revisiting and revising in my downtime. Maybe they’ll turn into something great one day! The novels may not be very good, but they have potential. I mean, I haven’t had my characters’ birthdays saved in my phone for eleven years for nothing.

But yeah, I finished my seventh novel.

I wrote this one in about six months, which, other than my precious baby, WIP #5, is the quickest I’ve written a novel. WIP #5 is the product of COVID lockdown, so I did have a lot more downtime to funnel my despair into.

There are a few reasons this project was “quick” for me. One of those things at the top of the list is my Freewrite Alpha. I’m not exaggerating when I say it’s been the BEST tool for me. I prefer to handwrite my first drafts, since I get into an obsessive habit of editing as I write and that leads me to barely trudge forward. Unfortunately, I also get really, really bad hand cramps–war flashbacks to The Old Man and the Sea or early stages of arthritis, you be the judge–so handwriting has been difficult the last few WIPs. The Alpha having a tiny screen and an incredible click-clacky keyboard has truly been so helpful to me! Saves me from hand pain and I’m not allowed to get stuck in what I’ve already written. I love it.

I’ve also been writing WIP #7 at the same time my boyfriend has been working on a script. He has a half-arbitrary deadline, and I decided it would be in my own best interest to work toward that deadline too. It helped keep me focused on the task at hand. I didn’t allow myself to get too distracted by new ideas, I was able to keep my socializing to a point that was very healthy for my social battery, and I really got to immerse myself into the story in a way I haven’t really been able to outside of WIP #5. I’ve set deadlines for myself before, but because I’m the only one holding myself accountable, I’m easily persuaded to extend it.

This is the closest I’ve come to outlining a project too. I knew that I would have to stay focused while writing, since this is a fairly specific and sensitive story, so I wanted to keep myself in check. I knew certain notes I wanted to hit and when I wanted to hit them. I divided the book into its five parts (a prologue, three timeline points, then an epilogue), and jotted some ideas down about each, as well as a little checklist. I told myself if I couldn’t check those things off, then I couldn’t finish.

HA! See, at heart, I’m still a “pantser.” The story and my characters tell me what to do. Therefore, only the prologue and part one ended up getting their checklist checked. The story just re-molded itself in a slightly different direction, and the more I wrote, the more right that direction was. I still got to follow my notes for the most part, but a lot of the details changed.

Writing for me is really just a game of “follow the vibes.”

I think I’ll continue to do a version of this for my next novel, which I’m looking forward to starting sometime next year. Even if I didn’t hit everything in my “outline,” it was helpful to have something to reference if I was starting to feel stuck. You know, “okay, what was Past Me thinking about and can I make it work for where the plot went?” line of thinking. I get it, you guys. I can see how it’s supposed to work.

So you finished a novel…what’s next?

I’m taking a little break. I need some time to process and think about potential plot holes I overlooked, etc without actually going in to fix anything. I’m too close to it right now to look at it objectively. This is one story I know I’ll get too sentimental about, and while I do think that’s a good thing, I know that I need to turn on Editor Lady brain for the next step.

I’m also taking the rest of the year to “chill out.” Focus on reading and catching up on some shows. Work is pretty hectic these days too, so that’s taking up a lot of brain space. Coming home and just shutting down to play some Stardew Valley or watch TV is the right move.

WIP #5 is getting some love, too–it’s not all play! I am shifting a bit of focus to researching agents and querying. It takes a lot of time!

The rest of my 2024 will be writing-adjacent. Because I just wrote a BOOK. It’s a big deal! And ya girl is tired.