db banjo-writing

One of the reasons I started this blog was to push myself to document occasional thoughts – and hopefully even start a dialogue – around novel writing. Now, almost a year in, and with a novel and a novelette now (self-) published, I think I’ll set out some of the things that stand out for me as takeaways.

• The writing process. Having spent decades pushing back against the fairly process-driven work I was engaged in for a living, I assumed, naively, that writing novels would offer a more freeform means to express my creativity. However, before I started out, I carried out some research, and read some excellent books and blogs on the art of and approach to novel writing.
  
  In summary, I learned that there is – and needs to be – a disciplined process, including writing a target set of words every day, and working through a series of novel drafts; taking a ruthless approach to reviewing, discarding and rewriting everything you’ve spent hours putting together.
  
  I won’t deny that procrastination has been a constant companion: leading me down side tracks and persuading me to postpone my daily words quota. But every time I actually start writing I find it equally difficult to stop. Being creative can feel very rewarding.
  
  Some of the guidance I personally found the most useful on the writing process includes the following:
  • Walter Mosley, ‘This Year You Write Your Novel‘,
  • Matt Bell, “Refuse to Be Done: How to Write and Rewrite a Novel in Three Drafts“,
  • Haruki Murakami, ‘Novelist as a Vocation‘,
  • Hugh Howey has been a major inspiration towards the ‘just do it’ approach to writing, and he frequently blogs about his experiences. (Chapters 12 onwards of his ‘Death and Life: A Biography‘ summarise much of this.)
    
• Storytelling. Creating stories together has always been the main fuel propelling my desire to write. Being able to convert my habit of incessant daydreaming into something tangible. Taking an audience on a journey that involves tensions and emotions, and then delivering them to a meaningful destination (which, for me, is identical to the impulse to create music).
  
  Creating a coherent story that, hopefully, is a little different does require some real, iterative, work on plot and storyline development; and also a fair deal of subject matter research, if your story is reality-based. And work on structure is just as important. The story may be complete and consistent – but is it being told in such a way that the reader is motivated to keep following it?
  
  However, the experience of creating and fleshing out the characters in a story is the aspect that I’ve found perhaps the most directly rewarding experience in story writing, as discussed next.
  
• Character development. Up to now, before I’ve start writing a story I’ve had a fairly decent handle on the themes that will be tackled, most of the main characters that will be involved, and key events that will transpire – including the ending. But developing those main characters (and also some of the minor ones) is where some of the transformative magic happens for me. In a couple of ways.
  
  Firstly, I start to identify with some of the characters on an emotional level. Even some of the ‘baddies’ and the minor characters. This can help me see the world of the novel through their eyes, and enables me to make their actions somewhat less stereotypical.
  
  Secondly, like actors interpreting a script, some of my characters might ‘talk’ back to me as I’m writing; as if to say: ‘I wouldn’t do (or say) that – I’d react this way instead.‘ – which can result in my profoundly altering the arc of a scene, or even the main story itself.
  
  Character development provides the most gratifying experience in writing for me; where I find myself at the same time the creator – and the unanticipative audience – of a story that is unfolding.
  
• Self-publishing. Self-publishing was a no-brainer for me. I didn’t/don’t have the time or the stamina to go through the traditional publishing route; involving finding an agent and/or touting manuscripts to publishers in the hope of a deal. Especially given that I don’t write in one of the vogue genres, and I do write in a language that isn’t one of the official languages of the country I live in.
  
  Hugh Howey’s articles had already given me a primer on the realities of self-publishing, but there was still so much I had to learn about the practicalities of doing it all yourself. More than can be covered here – but these are some resources I found helpful in the context of free-to-read guides:
  • Hugh Howey’s writing insights,
  • Jane Friedman,
  • Nathan Bransford,
  • Publishdrive guides,
  • Kindle Direct Publishing guides,
  • Reddit (e.g. the selfpublish group)
    
• Marketing & promotion. Hands-down the the most challenging aspect of all of this for me. The whole ‘blowing your own trumpet’ thing. It does, and will always feel like the most skin-crawlingly unnatural way to behave.
  
  You have a book or more now sitting in some real or virtual stores. How will your intended readers learn about it? If people have never heard of you how do you grab their interest? Do you write in one of the popular genres, e.g. romance/erotica/sci-fi/fantasy/horror/mystery/thriller? (Can you even attribute a specific genre to your writing?) Can you identify social media or web advertising channels that will reach your intended audience? Are you active on social media? Do you have a significant follower base?
  
  All of the questions above point to the fact that the average self-publisher has a bit of a mountain to climb to gain visibility. Even going through the traditional publishing route doesn’t come with any guarantees, other than the heft of the publisher’s brand, and a marketing budget (which you’re paying for anyway).
  
  The one thing that I’ve gathered from the experiences of others on forums and blogs is that new self-publishers will generally not see any worthwhile returns from investing heavily in advertising their first books. The general advice is: keep writing, build up a body of work – and then paid promotions will tend to have something to gain traction with. And I’m going along with that advice.
  

So, learning as we go, and I’m continuing to find this perhaps the most creatively rewarding thing I’ve ever done.

Feel free to share your perspectives (and questions) in the comments!