Fiction fears force your literary aspirations to wrestle with apathy and self-condemnation.
It’s heaven when you see your novel coming together in an amazing and unexpected crescendo of meaning, but often between the beginning and the end, you’ll get bogged down in the middle, in a dark spot, a place where you’re sure your book is so bad it isn’t worth writing.
Work through it.
It’s frightening to see that you’ve spent thousands of hours on a project that isn’t likely to pay back thousands of dollars no matter how many lifetimes you throw at it. Realizing that is enough to freeze your heart within, as your fingers become ice on the keyboard.
Write through it.
We fiction writers are faced with a journey – our literary journey – that has nothing to do with perfection. Our novels don’t have perfect shape, because there is no perfection to be had. They are a mere conglomeration of words that have streamed from our consciousness as we imagine new dilemmas to toss our characters into.
Have faith in your ability to do this.
When you don’t know your novel’s theme, write on, because eventually the theme will become evident.
When you don’t know how to get your character from point A to point B, continue the story, because the way will become clear before long. Be confident. Love that character into life.
When you decide your novel is trash and wonder why you spent so much time writing it, just slog along. You’ll come out of that valley soon enough and climb back to the summit of literary exultation.
No writer is perfect.
Also…
No character is perfect.
No plot is perfect.
No dialogue is perfect.
No novels are perfect.
We’re made for each other!
We can do this!
Just toss your collection of imperfect thoughts and words and ideas into the novelist fire, and shake it all around, pull it out and when cool, pat it into shape. Like a sculptor you’ll take that rough and odd first draft and sand away all the worst imperfections.
Keep whittling away at it, tearing out all the stuff that really doesn’t belong there.
Get a few critiques.
Get an editor, if you can.
Revise and revise and revise.
Make it as awesome as you can… then serve it up to the public by creating your POD book or Kindle e-book, whatever you feel is right.
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I’m sure somewhere, sometime during your novel revision process, you will realize your novel has a unique form and redeeming qualities. You’ll capitalize on those, making your novel into a unique journey readers will take with you.
You’ll cross your fingers, hold your breath, and hit the publish button.
Guess what… not much happens when you publish your novel, but you’ll have the supreme satisfaction of knowing that you launched your baby out into the world.
It isn’t likely to make you rich, but all this makes you a working artist, one willing to share your innermost consciousness with the world.
You’ve bled tears of fire with your years of intense endeavor, and breathed life into your work.
It doesn’t take any more than that.
If you’re a writer desperately trying to create fiction, sit up or step back, and realize it doesn’t take a miracle to create a book. It just takes hard work.
How much do you want your literary dreams to come true?
How much are you willing to put into it?
Excellent advice! I am working on putting together a book right now and it is being squeezed in between my other work. Reading articles like this give me the drive to get back to it. Thank you.
I still have novels to edit so I can self-publish them. I’ll be participating in Camp Nanowrimo during April this year…. but since we can set our own goals for this challenge, I’m setting mine low. I have so much self-imposed pressure for other work issues right now, I don’t think I can commit to a lot.
I just wish I could get some of my enthusiasm back… I feel so drained by my private life and work, work, work! My partner’s indecision on what to do with his life makes me feel like I’m trying to stand on shifting sands. The balancing effort takes a lot of energy. I need peace of mind to be able to write.
I know exactly how you feel. Funny how now that I am at home all day the time flies by so very quickly. Having hubby home retired doesn’t help out lol.
Oh, I wrote that comment in 2012, less than a year before I left him! So now, I’m single. I definitely have a more peaceful life now!
Hi Linda, I agree whenever things don’t seem to be working out for me, if I feel blocked or don’t know what to write, I keep writing and things seem to figure themselves out. Write your way through it is sound advice