What I Learned Writing My First Book

Just a quick update before I dive into this week’s post:

It has been such an exciting week! I received the edits from most of the readers and have started the revision process. It has been much more enjoyable to edit now that I have feedback to work with. Some of the issues noted had to do with staying consistent with the point of view. Certain parts are written in the first person while others are in the third person. Originally, the whole book was written in the third person. I later decided to change it to first person with certain chapters remaining in third person due to the story going back in time. The problem is, in the first-person sections, I missed words that were still in the third person.

Additionally, I need to specify who is speaking more frequently. This, admittedly, was one of the aspects about writing my first book that felt awkward. I was self-conscious about not wanting the writing to sound irritating and annoying by over-stating which characters were speaking. It was also challenging because the story is so vivid in my head and I forget that the reader does not know the story the same way I do and is not envisioning it in the same way. Hopefully, adding more detail and expanding on the information already there will make the story clearer to the reader.

Lessons Learned

Writing A Priest’s Discovery has had its challenges, but it has been such a fulfilling experience. I have learned a lot about myself as a person and as a writer. With that, there have come many lessons and challenges I hope to learn from for my next book. Here are some of the mistakes and lessons I have learned to hopefully encourage other new writers to keep going:

• Outline: This one may seem obvious for many. My original outline is mediocre at best. I had to rewrite this book six times before anyone could read it because I kept finding plot holes, changing events, and changing the point of view the story was being told from. For the next book, I plan to write an extensive outline going in depth with each scene, each character, and any dialogue. I want to record how everything is going to play out so that I can spend more time focused on the flow of the prose.

  
  

•  Research: This ties into the first point I made about outlining. Research the dates and places your characters are going to be in. This story takes place in modern day Vermont. I based the descriptions in the book based upon the places I have seen in modern day Vermont. However, another part of my book takes place around the time of World War II. I, clearly, was not alive during that time. So, I had to heavily research what life was like there around that time and the struggles people were dealing with. My advice is to include this information within your outline so you can utilize it to further develop scenes, characters, and the overall ambiance of your book.

• Transcribe your imagination: This is so important for both the outline and the actual writing of the story itself. Write what you are seeing and how the story is playing out in your head. What I mean by this is to share explicitly what you are seeing. The surroundings. The atmosphere. The scene itself. The reader can’t see it, and they are relying on you to set it up for them, in a strategic and captivating way, of course. One of the issues I ran into was only writing the basics needed to make the story because it played like a movie in my own head. I also feared that it would be annoying to the reader, whoever they were going to be, that I would overshare when describing what was in my imagination. It ended up being a big mistake. Not to say you shouldn’t think about the reader—you absolutely should—but you can’t let it be the thing that dictates how you share your story.

  
  

This also means using your visions of the story to help you figure out the point of view to write the story from. For me, I felt deeply connected to the main character and everything came from his perspective. This should have been my first clue to write in first-person. It certainly would have saved me at least three extra drafts of work. Additionally, when I was seeing the events play out, it was from one of the characters. I wasn’t looking down on the events unfolding—only in the parts that go back in time. Again, another sign to write the way the story has revealed itself to you and using it to decipher the point of view to write in.

•  Trust yourself: To those of you fellow writers, your story came to you for a reason. It has kept your attention and time. The trick is trusting yourself to be the one to share it. This has been challenging for me to realize, but truly, the story wants YOU to tell it. Believe in yourself to do it. Trust that the story knew who to reveal itself to. It trusts you, now it is time for you to do the same.

  
  

If you are a writer, what are some things you have learned along the way? What are some tips and tricks you would share with writers like me who are still trying to figure it out?