10 + Years of Attempted Novel Writing
Well, I finally did it. A couple of months of ago, I finally finished my novel. It’s a great feeling and I’m really proud of myself. Woot!
It’s been an extremely long journey and in this post I would like to share that story in case anyone might find it interesting or helpful.
I started novel writing in the summer of 2013. Back then I was set on writing science fiction, and the premise of that story was that a guy finds out he’s a robot and has to deal with the ramifications. At the time, I had no idea how to write a novel, had never taken any classes on how to do so, and was basically just winging it, having been a lifelong reader. That was not a good plan.
I struggled a lot. And I mean, A LOT. And even that’s an understatement.
Over the years, I wrote draft after draft and hundreds of thousands of words, but I could never figure it out. For the first few years, I hammered away at a specific version of the plot with a pretty big cast of characters. I later realized that the story was too big and unwieldy, and I kept falling into the trap of making the antagonist too powerful, and so I kept writing myself into a corner.
I then figured out a different plot with a smaller cast of characters whom I really loved, and that kept me going for several more years. Though even then I still wrote many drafts because I still couldn’t nail down the plot exactly. I had a much better idea of what it should be, but I still couldn’t get it to click.
Nonetheless I kept going, did my best, and in 2020, right before the pandemic, I finished a draft that I sent to a freelance editor for a manuscript critique. Specifically, I wanted to know if she thought my novel was ready to send to agents and publishers. She did a very thorough job and sent me a 20-page critique, with the ultimate answer that no, the manuscript was not ready at all.
I knew all her edits and feedback were spot on, but I just didn’t have the skills to implement them. I was also so in the weeds with that novel, that I was too deep into it. At that point, it had been seven, almost eight, years struggling with it, so I decided to put it down indefinitely. I just didn’t know how to tell that story. And even more so, I didn’t really know what story I was trying to tell.
Looking back on that struggle, I think my problem was three-fold.
First, it always kinda bothered me that I hadn’t thought of that premise on my own. Rather, it was my now ex-husband who had suggested the idea of a guy finding out he’s a robot. I know that’s a pretty basic premise that anyone might think of, but still. And even though we were together for many of the years that I was working on that novel, it never really felt like my own, and so I struggled to feel connected to it.
The second, and more significant, problem was that I didn’t know how to write a novel. So even once I did land on a general plot that I liked and felt connected to the characters I had created, I couldn’t bring it all together and stick the landing.
The third problem, which is closely related to the second, and that I mentioned above, is that I never knew what story I wanted to tell. So a guy finds out he’s a robot. So what? I didn’t have the skills or knowledge at the time to think about what the message, or theme, of the story should be. This is also sometimes called the heart of the story. For example, the theme or heart of the movie Coco is the importance of family and not forgetting our ancestors. For the movie Interstellar, the theme is sacrificing to save your family and how that sacrificial love is the most potent force in the universe. The heart of the story runs through the plot/series of events as they unfold.
So back to the story. After I put that sci-fi novel down, I decided to go back to a short story I had written that I wanted to edit and polish. I realized during that process that I actually really liked that little short and decided that I would expand it into a novel. Crucially, my husband and I started dating at that time, and he suggested I read Save the Cat: The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need.
I cannot overstate how much this book made everything finally, FINALLY click into place for me in terms of storytelling. It was the guidance that I desperately needed during all those years of struggling mightily. STC breaks down the 15 beats every winning story must have, and not only that, but where exactly in the story each beat must occur. For example, the first few beats are Opening Image, Theme Stated, Set Up, Catalyst, Debate. You can even go to savethecat.com and use their beat mapping tool, which tells you where exactly each beat must go in your story depending on its page length. You can also check out my post on the beat sheet.
In addition, the beat sheet demands that you figure out the heart of the story as that is a crucial part of each of the 15 beats. And so it was the double whammy of learning how to structure a novel and also how to weave the heart of the story through the plot that helped me understand capital s Story.
Most novel writing guides discuss the three-act structure or five-act structure, but that leaves huge swaths of emptiness that the aspiring novelist must try to fill in, with no guidance. The beat sheet solves that problem and really breaks down how to structure a novel in a more granular way. For me, it was a revelation.
So I applied the beat sheet to the new novel I wanted to write and everything finally clicked into place. I still wrote several drafts to really nail it down but at each step I knew I was on the right track and didn’t struggle at all the way I had before. Not to mention that this novel, a supernatural thriller rather than a sci-fi, only took four years to write. That might still seem like a lot, but I could only write in the early mornings before work. And compared to seven years, that’s a huge improvement.
So that’s the story of how I wrote my novel, The Man in the Red Paisley Suit, that I’m currently seeking to get published. It’s been an absolutely wild ride, and I can’t wait to do it again.
-Andrea 🙂