What Every New Writer Should Know Before They Start Writing

 

What Every New Writer Should Know Before They Start Writing

When I first began writing, I did not understand one of the most important lessons I know today:

Your first job is not to write the best book possible. Your first job is to finish the first draft.

That may sound simple, but for a new writer, it can change everything.

In the beginning of my own writing experience, I thought differently. I believed that when I sat down to write, I needed to make the story as good as possible right then and there.

I wanted the sentences to sound right.

I wanted the story to flow.

I wanted the ideas to make sense.

I wanted the book to feel finished while I was still creating it.

What I did not yet understand was that writing a book is a process.

And the first draft is where that process begins.

My First Book Taught Me Something I Did Not Yet Recognize

The first book I wrote was for my mother.

She had suffered a stroke and had lost her ability to write, but she still had her memories, her experiences, and the stories of her life.

I became the person who helped put those experiences on the page.

In many ways, I was able to complete that book because my mother was helping guide me through it. She knew what she wanted to tell. She could share memories from growing up, explain what had happened, and help point me toward the next part of the story.

Without realizing it at the time, I had something very valuable:

A road map.

The story already had a direction.

My job was to listen, capture it, and keep moving forward.

That first experience gave me confidence.

Then came my second book.

That one was different.

When the Story Had to Come Entirely From Me

My second book grew from my own creative thoughts and ideas.

There was no one sitting beside me telling me what happened next.

There was no established life story to follow.

I had characters, ideas, scenes, and imagination.

But I was still trying to write the finished book while I was creating the first draft.

That is where I ran head-on into one of the great enemies of new writers:

The writing sag.

Sometimes I would move along well for a while, and then the story would slow down.

I would begin questioning what I had written.

I would go backward.

I would rewrite.

I would second-guess scenes that were not yet finished.

I would try to fix problems before I even knew what the complete story was going to look like.

Eventually, progress could come to a stop.

More than once, I stayed away from a manuscript so long that returning to it felt almost impossible.

I could barely remember where my thinking had been when I stopped.

The characters were still there.

The unfinished story was still there.

But the momentum was gone.

Today, I understand why.

I had been trying to edit, perfect, create, and finish the book all at the same time.

Those are different jobs.

The First Draft Is Your Framework

I approach writing differently now.

I think of the first draft as a framework.

It is the road map that shows me where the story is going.

The road may eventually change.

I may take a different turn.

I may remove a scene, add a character, strengthen a conflict, or discover that something I planned in Chapter Three works much better in Chapter Eight.

That is fine.

A road map does not prevent you from changing direction.

It simply prevents you from wandering around without knowing where you are trying to go.

For a new writer, that distinction can be extremely important.

Your first draft does not have to impress anyone.

Nobody even has to see it.

It only has to carry your story from the beginning to the end.

Once you reach the end, you finally have something you can study as a complete work.

Then you can begin making it better.

Know Who You Are Writing For

Before beginning a book, it also helps to think about your audience.

Who do you imagine reading your work?

Are you writing for children?

Young adults?

Mystery readers?

Romance readers?

People interested in history?

People trying to solve a particular problem?

Readers looking for inspiration?

You do not have to know every detail about your future reader, but understanding your general audience can help you make important choices.

It affects your language.

It affects your pacing.

It affects the amount of explanation you provide.

It can even affect the length of the book.

A children's story and an adult historical novel may both begin with wonderful ideas, but they will probably require very different approaches.

Know Why You Are Writing

It also helps to understand the purpose behind your book.

Are you trying to entertain?

Teach?

Preserve family history?

Persuade?

Encourage?

Share an experience?

Make readers laugh?

Make them think?

A book can certainly do several of those things at once, but knowing your primary purpose can help you decide what belongs in the manuscript and what does not.

When a writer becomes lost, sometimes returning to one simple question can help:

What am I trying to give the reader?

That question can bring the story back into focus.

Know the Heart of the Story

You do not necessarily need a detailed outline before writing.

Some writers love outlines.

Others prefer discovering much of the story as they go.

Both approaches can work.

But I do believe a writer should have some idea of the heart of the book.

For fiction, you might ask:

Who is this story about?

What does that person want?

What stands in the way?

What could be lost?

What changes by the end?

For nonfiction, ask:

What problem am I helping the reader understand?

What information do I want the reader to walk away with?

What is the main message?

You do not need every answer before you begin.

You simply need enough direction to start moving.

Learn the Mechanics, But Do Not Let Them Stop You

Grammar, spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, and word choice matter.

They help readers understand what you are trying to communicate.

Every writer should continue learning these skills.

But new writers can also become so afraid of making mistakes that they stop writing altogether.

Do not allow a comma to kill your story.

Do not let one misspelled word end your writing session.

Do not spend thirty minutes trying to make one sentence perfect while an entire chapter is waiting to be written.

Those things can be corrected.

Ideas that are never written cannot.

Research What You Need—But Keep Writing

Research is another important part of writing.

If your story takes place in another historical period, profession, city, country, or culture, you may need to learn more before certain scenes can be written accurately.

That is part of responsible writing.

But research can also become another hiding place.

A writer can spend months researching a book that never gets written.

Sometimes you can simply leave yourself a note in the manuscript:

Check this fact later.

Then continue writing.

Research should support the story.

It should not become a substitute for finishing it.

Do Not Fear an Ugly First Draft

One of the best pieces of advice a new writer can receive is permission to write an imperfect first draft.

Maybe it is rough.

Maybe some dialogue sounds awkward.

Maybe you repeat yourself.

Maybe a character changes personality halfway through.

Maybe Chapter Five turns out to belong before Chapter Three.

Maybe your ending changes while you are writing it.

Good.

That means you are discovering the story.

Your first draft is not evidence of how good or bad a writer you are.

It is raw material.

Think about a sculptor beginning with a block of stone.

The first cut does not look like the finished sculpture.

Writing works much the same way.

Finish Before You Judge

This may be one of the hardest lessons for a new writer:

Do not judge the entire book while you are still standing in the middle of it.

You cannot always see what a story is becoming while you are creating it.

Something that feels weak in the middle of the first draft may become powerful once the ending is written.

A character who seems unnecessary may suddenly become essential.

A scene you almost deleted may later provide the perfect setup for something important.

Give yourself the opportunity to reach the end.

Then judge the book.

Then edit.

Then rewrite.

Then strengthen it.

Writing and Editing Are Different Jobs

This distinction has helped me tremendously.

When I am writing the first draft, I am building.

When I am editing, I am inspecting what I built.

When I am rewriting, I am improving it.

When I am proofreading, I am cleaning it up.

Trying to perform every one of those jobs at once can make writing exhausting.

Separating them makes the process much more manageable.

Your First Draft Is Not the Book—It Is the Beginning of the Book

Today I am much more comfortable accepting that story writing is a process.

The first draft gives me the framework.

It gives me something to follow.

It gives me a road map.

Most importantly, it gives me a complete story that I can improve.

I wish I had understood that more clearly when I began writing.

It might have saved me from some of the long writing sags when my work came to a complete stop.

It might have kept me from believing that every sentence needed to be perfect before I could move on.

But perhaps learning those lessons the hard way is part of what allows me to share them with other writers today.

So if you are thinking about writing your first book, here is what I would want you to know before you begin:

Know generally who you are writing for.

Know why you want to tell the story.

Understand the basic heart of what you want to say.

Learn your craft.

Research what you need.

But above all else:

Finish the first draft.

Do not try to write the perfect book on your first trip through the story.

Build the framework first.

Create your road map.

Reach the end.

Then go back and turn that first draft into the book you imagined.

Because you cannot improve a book that only exists in your head.

But once the first draft exists, almost everything about it can be improved.

That is where the real writing journey begins.

— Giftkone Publishing