So You Wrote A Book

     I have joined a few writing/author groups on Facebook and I see, over and over again, posts similar to, ‘I wrote a book, now what do I do?’ Obviously, anyone who writes a book would want to see it printed or published. We want people to read it and think it’s great. But there’s something very important to think about before any of us take that course of action – we need to figure out if it’s good enough to be in the hands of readers.

     Generally, when a new writer believes they have written a book, they don’t realize what they’ve actually created is a first draft. Coming from nothing but an idea with very little research into the craft and even less practice means the story they wrote isn’t finished yet. It really, really, really needs to be edited by someone with experience and knowledge in the art of the story. That’s the process. If you dodge this part, you cheat yourself in the long run and you inherit the stigma of being an unaccomplished writer, no matter how good your sentence structure is.

     Having a story in mind and committing to getting it written is a huge achievement. Many start but never finish. But every seasoned writer knows it is not the end of the journey it’s only Act 1. Next comes proofreaders and advice. This is the toughest part for new writers because criticism is difficult for most to accept. At first, it feels like an attack on everything we’ve put into the book. A lot of time and effort went into the creation of this thing, how dare anyone say it’s not finished yet! We must accept criticism for what it’s intended to be, helpful advice to make the story the best it can be.

     Editing is the next part of the process and it is a process in itself, that’s why it has its own job title. Many will say doing it yourself is not the best practice but for new writers, there isn’t always a budget to pay someone else. If, like me, you are your own worst critic, you can manage it. The proof is in the words at the end of the day; the work will speak for itself whether you edit the work or someone else does. Many writers will attest as well that once you start editing, you don’t know when to stop. How do you know when the story is done? How do you know it’s good enough? In time, you just learn to let it go and hope for the best. The end of the journey is simply a measure of comfort I suppose.

     Take this little piece of writing. I had the idea for it, I developed it, wrote it in chunks, organized those chunks, rewrote it, edited for continuity and read it over and over again. I didn’t post it until I was satisfied with it. Truth be known, I will never really be satisfied with it. It could always be better, ask any writer about their work. We could always find something that could be redone. Many who have read and will read this article will say it could be better or they could have done better but that’s the game. Someone will always think it isn’t good enough. That shouldn’t discourage you, people like what they like and if they don’t like your work someone else will.

     Getting our story organized and writing it in proper structure takes practice. There is so much to understand about story – plot, theme, story arch, character development, world building, foreshadowing, show don’t tell, imagery, dialogue; and using of all these tools to make the story flow smoothly, in logical order, and keeping the reader interested enough to want to know what happens next. A story that is developed properly will be rich in enough detail to bring the reader into the world we’ve created.

     If you can’t fit all these pieces together in your story, it will be flat, uneventful and woefully underdeveloped. Nothing worse than a bad review and learning through hindsight that the book could have been better. We were passionate enough to commit the time to writing the book, we must also commit to any rewriting it needs to be a great book. We must not cheat our readers out of a great experience. We need to entice their senses, get them emotionally involved, make them feel like they’re participating. We need them imagining that they’re travelling alongside the hero, feeling what they’re feeling, figuring out the next puzzle or coming up with the next plan. We need readers connecting with the characters and believing who they are, where they are and what they are doing is really happening. Readers need to relate to what’s going on or they will lose interest. Not always an easy task, especially for new writers but after some practice, it becomes second nature. The process takes on a life of its own and we find ourselves thinking about the little details automatically.

     The idea is that we don’t ever want to assume what we wrote is the best thing ever and everyone is going to love it just because we wrote it. Coming up with a story is the easy part. Crafting that story into a rich, meaningful experience for the reader is the challenge we writers must aspire to. That is the true satisfaction of writing, and it’s definitely worth putting the effort into. Your readers will follow you always if you can accomplish that.