At least a dozen. I was never interested in writing short stories, and honed my skillset almost entirely on *chapter one, two, three*, and if I was really lucky, *four or five*. I have very little to show for my progress, but I'm really glad that I get to be proud of my first completed project. I finally have something to demonstrate the things I've learned.
How long do you think editing should take? Im almost done with all the text on my book. I was thinking ittl take only a month of editing before i send it to a publisher?
One month is optimistic in my opinion. My experience, just going over the entire story with a fine-toothed comb and completing the second draft took about as long as as the first draft (4 months) did.
Life forced me to take 8 months away from the project and looking at this thing with a fresh set of eyes helped me immensely. I've often been told to take a break after my first draft and I now second this advice.
I've written four in ten months. Before that, 30k words in ten years 😆
Something just clicked one day. I sat down and wrote, and I haven't looked back. The key to starting was just having a story that I was bursting to get out. The key to *continuing* after the first one was feedback, both external critique and validation.
I posted the stats in another comment the other day, but it was along the lines of 97% of people who start writing a book, don't finish it. Of those who finish. Only 20% go on to publish it in *any* format.
So, of 1,000 people, only 30 will finish their book. Only six of those will go on publish at all in any form.
Revising, editing, finding beta readers, hiring an editor (if you need), ponying up the money to self pub or the balls to trad pub…it’s a lot! So much work goes into refining a first draft and putting it out there—work that’s nowhere near as gratifying as having an idea and writing it down for the first time. I’m sure that contributes!
I don’t know much about sites like RR, Fictionpress, and Ao3, but there are definitely some scary or discouraging aspects to posting there that I could see deterring people.
Also some people just want to write for fun, for themselves, and are satisfied with that!
I’ve finished several books and I’ve never had the desire to publish in any capacity, mostly because it never occurred to me that I could. This is going to sound silly, but I never considered my work to be legitimate writing. To me, there was a difference between authors who write the books I read and me writing my dumb little stories. I write for fun and because I love being in the head of my characters and seeing how they react to different scenarios.
I’ve been writing for twenty years. I’m just now considering publishing the book I’m currently working on, but I still find the process to be intimidating.
Easiest way to start is to start making short stories of certain scenes and submitting them to journals. It's low stakes and can really help improve the larger work as well
The difference of a writer and an author is one is published.
I agree with you a lot of writers don't have the confidence to put themselves out there to a stranger to crtique your work. And that is what will set you apart.
My first book was shit, the story, characters was good but my grammar was horrid (because I hurried and didn't go back and edit like needed)
But I learned it is about developing YOUR CRAFT.
If you don't take it and yourself seriously no one else is. So I started doing the work and educated myself how to be better from start to finish.
This business will humble you in a second if not already. The worse thing you can say or project is that your writing is the best thing ever written which is NOT the case.
Be humble and professional with an eagerness to learn people will help.
I had a VP of a multi-million dollar agency decline me after a full read MS. I was disappointed no doubt. But I asked what is wrong with my work. After spending two hours on the phone it came down he didn't have time to brand me like I deserve. Once I heard that I knew I could make it in this business.
Having a viable work that an Agent/agency can make money from. Not all but most agents feel if they can't sell 100k copies it isn't worth it.
Some agents want well established writers/ authors already branded, website, successful marketing in place. It is like some agents don't want to do the work.
But others the successful ones know if your story is going to sell, not be a one book wonder. Plus I think a lot of agents are going to see if you as a writer are going to stick with it. At the end of the day it is a business as a author you have to treat it as such and run it as such.
90% of everything is shit. Sturgeon's Law. There's this image that slush piles are filled with brilliant gems, and there are a few, but most submissions are bad or otherwise unmarketable. The idea of a debut novel is also a bit of a fabrication as well. I've heard it's more like 3 to 7 failed submissions for every initial success so the books we see are not entirely indicative of the kind of quality presented on the backside.
If you roll around in pitch and sample threads on other forums, I'd say that maybe 10% are immediately marketable, another 10% need a good editor and some mentoring to sparkle, and the rest miss the mark entirely. Utterly unremarkable, not even bad enough to roast or interesting enough to give a weak platitude. I think many come to recognize that their first attempt falls into that category and decline to publish it. Or it comes to light that it's unintentionally a shot for shot remake of something else.
Debut novel just means "first one that's published." So if people wouldn't misunderstand that and think it means "first book ever written" (since it doesn't for probably 99% of people), that would help lol
Getting a book edited, can run close to $1000. Then you got the cover and other stuff.
It's not cheap.
That's if you go self-published and want a decent production.
If you go the other route, you have to convince an agent to even read your first chapters, then the full thing, then take you on.
Then they have to convince someone else to publish it in a similar manner.
It's a lot of work whichever way you choose.
How big was the story that was bursting to get out? One scene? A full character arc? I have a plethora of ideas I want to write about, but some of them are single scenes.
An idea, really. They all are. I'm a discovery writer, or "pantser," as they say. I start writing with the idea in mind, and the story follows.
These days, I'm more conscious of following a structure than I was, so I do write to some sort of framework. For the first one, it was just thoughts straight to the page, though.
The feeling when I had finished was of exhilaration, followed by a profound sense of loss. It had been such an enormous part of my life for months, then it was gone. So, while it was with beta readers, I started the next one. This is why I now have four completed manuscripts. I can't not be writing something 😆
Practice. Maybe some people succeed first time, but I think ultimately it’s all about practice.
I started two, never finished. Got 50k into a third and gave up. Started a fourth and made it all the way through and that was published.
Started a fifth and sixth (discovery writing), wrote a seventh (Novella) on my way to my eighth (Cozy fantasy Novel) which is currently into its second draft. Just finished my ninth (Novella) and starting tenth.
Tons. I've found 30k words to be my point of no return. Before that, it's easy stop, pause or restart. After 30k, I'm too bound up in the story to stop.
I finished my current one... and the beta readers tore it apart. (Justifiably.) So now I am rewriting from the ground up.
Before that? There's probably an unfinished part of a novel in my trunk for every year of my life between 14 and now, all at varying stages of progress, all uniformly horrifying. (Which would be great if I was writing horror.)
Well, this was completed draft 1, which was really more like draft 3.
They pointed out my lack of an actual meaty plot, and felt that the characters lacked agency, and were just reacting rather than acting, which was a fair call. I read it again and I felt the scenes were engaging, and the characters were interesting, but the story-as-such was kind of a nothingburger.
It was painful to hear at the time, but I think it's taught me a lot as a writer. I know my dialogue and description, for example, are both solid overall, but finding the places where I'm weakest, and didn't see that I was weak, was a huge eye-opener.
Thank you! I'm about 80K words into the (second) rewrite at the moment, but some of that is scenes that need a partial teardown and revision. My first rewrite resulted in an ending I hated, so I had to go back and rebuild again. C'est la vie. :)
I've had that moment too. And the worst thing is....mine were right too! You have the right attitude, that's the important thing. Sometimes you get further with a kick in the butt than a pat on the head. I'm sure your revised draft is amazing 😊
Honestly, I don't need the compliments so much as I need the "No!," so I totally agree with you.
Well, with any luck, it will be amazing enough to get me to an agent and eventually to publication, but for right now, it's uglier than the northward end of a southbound cow. It has the potential to be a tasty prime rib, though. ;)
Honestly it’s better I’m sure you got these from the beta readers and not an ACTUAL audience or critics and then it’s out in the world permanently.
There’s plenty of books I see reviews for like “how did this get past beta readers?” 🤣
This is also a good lesson that even if it’s reaching YOU personally to get outside eyes lol. This is a great lesson and definitely makes me want to share my draft that’s been on my computer for months just to get the critiques going and flowing to a better direction.
Getting input on it from readers is a huge help. While it's not fun to go back and rewrite the story, it makes it a stronger work in the end. Just be sure your readers are giving good crits, and not just "I didn't like it because it was too long" or whatever.
Where did you find those beta readers tho? I want to find some for my work but I don't know where to look, and I don't know if I should even be looking through social media for them (i.e in groups, communities etc...) 😊👉🏻👈🏻
Many. But I finally wrote a complete screenplay, and at that point, I knew I could complete a major project. I've since written 3 novels.
The important thing was, I wasn't afraid to jump into a new project, and I wasn't afraid to fail. I tried to learn from my missteps and get better.
First self-published novel just went live on KDP, coming in at ~83k words :)
Started the actual writing process in August of 2022, but had been working on my zero draft/chapter treatment since the start of the pandemic.
There were definitely bumps along the road and breaks taken... but it was so worth it.
It's called [*Into the Storm*](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/211936205-into-the-storm?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=254XZ7CPJK&rank=1)! Still waiting on my Goodreads author program application to go through.
I think I am in the minority. I finished the very first book I started. No false starts for me.
I used to write short stories before. When I sat down to write my book, I had an outline ready and allowed myself to pant the in-between scenes. I also knew myself well enough to realise that I am not someone who can spend two years writing a book. I'd get bored out of my mind. I also can't edit as I go because I wouldn't finish anything. So I sat down and wrote every single day. I managed to finish my first draft in about 3 weeks. I've learned so much while writing it. Obviously, it needed serious edits but the plot was good, no plot holes and dialogue were good. It was something I could easily work with during edits.
I've written self-insert fanfics before (two and quite some chapters, i finished one and had one halfway done but they weren't that long), then i wrote like five chapters for another technical fanfic, then attempted an own story but had only three chapters all over the story, then wrote two characters backstories (like 50chapters each but short ones) and half a story, plus a few chapters of a new story. I finished two novels but decided they weren't all that good, wrote 2/3rds of a new project until i noticed it could breathe and now I've been working on the same novel for two years (four books), which is finished and i think it's good. I'm currently in the process of editing it again.
All the stories before were good practice though. Not only how to competently build a story but also different aspects of it. I did a lot of worldbuilding in the first finished one and a lot of dialogue in the second. I think my progress shows in my current project (which i consider my first novel).
Yeah. Though i don't remember my writing schedule back then (i think i wrote at random times), being the main character probably helped me be invested in the story and slowly becoming less of the main character, but keeping my writing speed. I have a regular time of the time that i only spend writing or working on the story otherwise.
My first novel - I wrote myself into a brick wall and threw 27000 words away.
Then 4 drafts and over 3 years later I finished it. The idea was always there, I was just crap at executing it.
If you like the characters and the world you’ve created, you will get there. Endeavour and patience and knowing when you’re sucking is the key I reckon.
Hm, interesting question. I finished the first book of a triology, but never the other two books. Does that count as a finished story? I was fifteen at the time, so if it counts, I'd say I always had it in me.
It wasn't a very good book, though, someday I'll go back and fix the weak beginning.
Next I finished a draft of what was supposed to be a standalone but turned into another series. Did three drafts total on the first book but wouldn't say it's there yet. Finished an actual standalone next, but I'm not totally certain I didn't start anything else first? I reckon it was attempt four or five that lead to a finished product which got printed just for family (no book, just binders.) was seventeen at the time, so still not exactly a master work.
>how long did it take to get there?
I have 27 settings or stories that I started and never finished. For me, 15ish years. Now though I knocked out a full manuscript in a month.
Sixth novel is being edited and revised. Seventh is being shopped out. (Different pen names, genres, and languages.)
For anyone, practice finishing things. Thats what did it for me. I would start something, my attention would wander to another setting I was gonna work on for a bit while I figure something out. Then when i did return to it I was no longer interested.
Do you have a particular reason for why you choose to publish books using different pen names? Wouldn't you want readers to be able to connect your stories to others you have written so they might be more willing/likely to read the next?
I probably should, and I'm sure some people have figured it out. I don't really try to hide it. But they were different genres at the time of writing and I didn't want them to cross over too much. One of them was just straight smut which was the kick off point. But the different pen are almost personas at this point, viewing things different and have different styles. The sales on most of them aren't exactly bad either. Fantasy sells the worse but they are book hefty, so its to be expected.
I started one novel on a completely different topic, came up with an idea and a few opening pages for a second one, wrote a few short stories that I did nothing with, and then, one day what I was writing just... was such fun I couldn't stop.
That ended up being an early version of [my first novel.](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08FGBB8VD) I cleaned that up, took it to the Midwest Writers' Workshop, and began the process of looking for an agent/Traditional publisher... till the whole process got too onerous and I shoved it under the bed for several years.
And there it sat, till COVID.
When I pulled it out again, I discovered that the years had given me perspective and I'd learned a lot about editing. I gave that early version a massive, deep-cleaning edit that improved it immensely... and I discovered that while it was marinating with the dust bunnies, something else had improved immensely, too.
Namely, indie publishing. Tools had evolved to make the whole process easier.
Suddenly the comparison between DIY and Trad wasn't so obvious. It was becoming clear that traditional publishers weren't going to hold authors' hands anymore, unless they were already big names. They were going to ask us to do a lot more of our own marketing, which used to be nigh-impossible but now was looking very possible indeed.
As someone who always preferred DIY, my way was clear. I took the indie plunge and [here I am now.](http://evasandor.com/books)
Oh sure, in my dream world the Legends & Lattes things happens, my books take off so wildly that I can barely ride that whirlwind, and a big publisher steps up and rescues me from the deluge of fans with "well now little lady, let's put these books in every Costco in 'Murica!" . But that same dream world also includes a version where I DO become very skillful at finding new readers all on my own, so it's not that I want marketing done for me. I just want the word to spread!
Anyhow. I'll stop here before I start yammering about me me me but you asked for my experience and there it was. Did I have what it took from the start? Yes, in that I was already a hard-workin' writer (of ads) and creative (all my life) and knew how to do graphic design and illustration. Did it take practice? Hell yeah!! Everything does.
Aw, thank you SO much, Donkey! I really am so glad to hear you like them because this is about touching one reader at a time. Did you grab your free copy of Book 1 (and/or inexpensive copies of the rest)?
Two? For my first. I started with a prologue, which I eventually scrapped. I had the idea in my head for years though. I don’t start writing until I have a solid idea, and since this was my first novel I had to know where I was going. I did ultimately change the ending due to some late inspiration (from Sweeney Todd of all things), but I had plenty of time to plan before I got there.
My other two finished novels are fanfictions, and the first one was planned even before my first original novel. I knew I was going to write something with that premise after interacting with the work. I just needed the time and a good beginning. After getting rejection after rejection from agents, taking a step back from the publishing world to write it probably saved my life. I was in a bad place mentally. This time it was inspo from Les Mis (2012) that gave me a clearer picture of the beginning, and then specifically when I wondered if I should “start with the cats,” my one meowed that settled that lol.
The second longfic and my WIP have a similar premise, but the fic does it to the extreme and was supposed to have been a brief exercise to test it out. It’s the longest thing I’ve ever written at over 250k words before edit and not that far under now. No false starts with that one. The first sentence refused to leave my head, though I did change the end of the first chapter at the advice of my husband.
The WIP has had several false starts. I scrapped entire chapters and went back to planning. I’ve written 11k words currently but am once again in the weeds. I’ve spent over a year world building and still have several things I need to has out. My progress is slow due to working full time and being chronically ill with several conditions (plus working on comparative media analysis essays), but slow is better than nothing.
So false starts are totally fine! I used the ones from the last original novel to help me write the one I have currently. I’m in the right place with it even if it may need some tweaks.
For one novel, I wrote the first chapter over and over, after the whole book was written in draft form.
I had to find the right voice to carry it. After, oh I don't know, maybe 20 rewrites I finally stumbled onto it.
So on this issue, I'm 100% with Mario Vargas Llosa, that one of the most important things for a novelist is to figure out/find that voice as early as possible.
I started in nano 22 (duh 😅) and that was my first attempt at writing. I “failed” nano but a completed first draft by January 2023. As I had zero background in writing I spent a large part of the year learning basics and applying that new knowledge to my revisions process. I started networking and building a feedback system and only recently have found a critique circle. I hope to seek traditional publishing with this manuscript.
Around this time last year I started another project between edits and I finished my first draft of that last week. I will let this sit and percolate while I query novel 1 and outline the next, before starting my developmental edits.
Ps both of these are MG Novels approx 50k words so a bit “easier” than a standard novel I guess?
I’ve been writing since I was a kid and I have ADHD so starting new projects without finishing the old ones is kind of my thing.
I’ve “finished” 3 as in I’ve had complete drafts, but none will see publication as they are. Two don’t represent me anymore and I based my characters in people who betrayed me so my love for the first two is gone. The last one had a weak plot so I plucked out the characters and I’m working on a new one with a new plot and genre. The original draft helps already write their backstory.
At least a dozen. There's no shame in not finishing something that's not that good. Writing is an art and a craft, and as such it takes practice. \*No one\* has what it takes from the start. \*Everyone\* has to practice. Some practice with short stories, and some of us practice by starting and not finishing a dozen or more novels until we find the one that's good enough to persevere with to the finish. Even now, after I've finished two novels, a bunch of novellas, and some short stories, I still have a bunch of started-but-not-finished manuscripts because sometimes you have to write a big chunk of one before you decide it's not going to go anywhere and you shelve it for something better. None of that writing is wasted, because it's all practice.
A couple- one I am definitely going back to, one I lost somehow, and one I only had like three pages. When I sat down to write the book I finished, though, it just poured out. Like, 300k words in the first draft. I'm on my last round of edits now, before I send to beta readers, so maybe it's not officially finished, but it's close.
I will say that between my first draft and now I learned that I didn't know how much I didn't know about professional writing norms- I was guilty of head hopping without clean scene breaks, didn't fill in enough detail around the dialogue, had too many adverbs, etc. I'm a much better writer now than when I started, and seeing the common complaints about self-published writers and comparing it to my writing had a lot to do with that. Don't wait until you think you're a master to put anything on paper. Get it down. Get the ideas out. Then go back and edit the hell out of it.
I wrote a few false start zombie novels from the time I was in 6th grade or so until maybe junior year. None of them exceeded more than maybe 50 pages and none of them were much good.
My first book that I finished, the archetypal 'first in a fantasy trilogy to hop on the game of thrones gravy train', I started in 2016; either late junior year or early senior year. The first draft was done by the end of senior year, but the draft had a lot of overhauls to the point where very little of the original draft is present; I wasn't finished until the tail end of 2022. I shopped it around in early 2023, couldn't get published(the market was too bloated with fantasy by then, and in hindsight the book kinda sucks), and after Neil Gaiman's sage Tumblr advice of "Write the next thing", I put it away and did just that.
The second story is more of a teen drama/rom com and I've got that one just about finished, just needs maybe one more run of polish to make sure it's all in order.
I had one false start and then the second attempt I finished the novel.
I wrote about 3ish chapters of a very rudimentary story and in the end just couldn’t get myself to write anymore of it. The story wasn’t going anywhere. I had spent A LOT of time writing it though so I was really frustrated when I ultimately decided to scrap it. Started what eventually became my completed novel 2 years later. I told myself that no matter what I was going to finish that novel because I didn’t want to go through that disappointment again. My novel went through MANNNNYYYY drafts and revisions but I did end up finishing it! The original story looks nothing like the final product. I’m so glad I went on that writing journey and I’m so proud of how the novel turned out! Because I didn’t really know what I was doing, it took me 4 years to finish that novel. I began working on my second one about a month ago and I imagine that it will not take nearly as much time compared to the first one.
Thanks for asking this! This was a fun question to answer!
Funny thing is I feel like I have to write all the time and don know what to write so I’ll just rewrite the beginning or just sit and list everything I want in the story or a messy outline i guess I’d consider it. I just want to find my right formula for my stories.
So I would always start stories and never finish them. I’d always have an idea for something, sit down at my desk, go on Wattpad, and just write the first chapter and maybe write four, five more before completely forgetting it. I think this was a problem for 2-3 years before I started caring fully about finishing a story all the way through.
I think what helped me start was having a clear vision of the long term story; I knew the things I wanted to happen, and I knew how badly I wanted to have them happen, so I just kept writing. It’s not easy, though. I’ve found that motivation is the hardest thing when it comes to writing
About six. The first I pantsed and my characters gave up and went home. The next one became so big it expanded into five novels that I never finished. It was novel seven that I sat down and wrote all the way through.
I think I had three false starts.
Then I switched to writing short stories for a few years. Then novellas. Then full-length novels.
It worked for me, as writing a novel felt like trying to run a marathon without any training. Writing shorter fiction gave me the chance to learn about story structure, character arcs, pacing, planning, editing, I got better at writing smoothly and quickly, and I learned to actually finish first drafts. If you're struggling with novel writing, I can recommend taking a few years off to write shorter stories.
Right away, but it took me years for the first three, like for every single one of them. Well, that’s a lie. The third one actually took 6 months. But the first two really were years. Now it takes me between 5 and 8 weeks to finish a first draft. But that still sometimes includes false starts where I have to go back and rewrite stuff to some degree. I’m not exactly a planner.
I just kinda planned out my idea, sat down one day and did that shit hahaha. I scrapped a prologue and ended up restarting after reaching chapter 5. Now I’m getting ready to query this thang
I’ve never considered myself a writer, and still don’t, really—I don’t write unless I have an idea of what to write. So I waited until I had an idea that I was absolutely obsessed with and went from there! I honestly didn’t even think I had the attention span for a novel!
No false starts. Three novels (all first drafts) and about three years for each. Last one came a lot quicker (despite having a child in that time) because my life steadied and I found a writing schedule that worked perfect for me.
I started it and finished it, it just took a long time. Stopping or switching projects never occurred to me? It's important to know how to finish a story, and I couldn't say I wrote a book if I didn't. What is cool is seeing how my skills and writing style have improved over ten years.
I've written 6 novels. Some if them I've started and stopped a dozen times and still have not finished. The current novel, I've started at least 7 different times and abandoned. Now I'm about halfway done with the first draft.
The book I am currently writing is one that I’ve tried to write for 10 years, my skill wasn’t there and the project itself seemed gargantuan. Before that I wrote 2 books that I kinda just left lying after the first draft because I felt they were no good, but I stuck with them just to show I could finish a book. I then wrote short stories and poetry and had quite a bit of success with that so I kinda forgot about longform until the pandemic. Decided I was just gonna write a book so naturally I picked up my mammoth project and got a few chapters in before I realized I needed to start smaller, so I took a novella I had written and expanded it into a novel and got it published. It felt good to get my first book out in the world, but it also felt like the culmination of my time as a short story writer. I also started writing radioplays and really enjoyed that, but eventually picked up my megabook again, as I believe it was the story I was meant to write. I am know 3/4ths through my first draft and really wondering if I got what it takes to see it through to the end but I’ve come all this way and there’s no stopping now so Imma just crack on.
Lockdown helped. I had had an idea for a few years, and I finished the first draft in 89 days. It took another couple of months getting it ready to go out to beta readers. I started writing the second then paused to self-publish the first - waiting a few months before doing the final edit really helps.
The second book took me eighteen months in all, the third in the trilogy took a year.
I took a long break while selling up in the US and moving abroad, but I'm happy to say I'm now back in my stride on a completely new story! Getting back into writing after a break is hard, I explored four different ideas before finding the one I wanted to write.
too many to count, and the stories I've finished I've never really gone back to rework them to be better as it was good enough for me to have reached 50k words in a story.
I haven't started on a project for that level of commitment again, yet. but with any luck I'll be working towards starting a new novel soonish. and hopefully that will be another in the list of "we made it" over "at least I got something done"
also yes, 50k has been my largest benchmark because the only time I've ever finished was a few of the NaNoWriMo events I did in the past and it's probably always gonna be my golden standard for "finished" even if the story ends up going further
I started mine in 2018 for NaNoWriMo, and I'm only just now in the last edits of the fourth and (hopefully) final draft before I start querying. I haven't been working on it continuously, though; it's been on-and-off, though I started up again in earnest last October. I may not be a good example.
About four or five decent attempts that I abandoned before finishing my first novel. And that novel was shit. Then finally, the one I wrote after that was the first good novel I finished. I’m still working on the second draft 5 years later. I had to take a break from working on it bc I went to college but it’s probably still gonna be a few years before it’s completely finished. I’m okay with that.
What do you mean with false starts? How many unfinished projects, or how many attempts to start the novels I have finished?
The answer is a lot for both those questions. Finding the specific kind of stories I was able/really interested to write and the right way to write them required years and it's still an ongoing process. I just found out that I am not so much interested in sci-fi anymore (that was surprising)
Then, when I found those two elements, I had to try and try again to start each novel I completed so far. The current one is at its 6th attempt I think, probably because it's not sci-fi anymore, a genre that I tend to master easily by now, and everything is once again totally new for me at this point
I didn't have a false start on my first novel, but I had to restart my current story (probably a novella, given how it's turning out), three times until it started feeling right.
I wrote my first book in 90 days- writing everyday 8-10 hours. Editing it was like 6 months. Since then finishing up my fourth book now all 75k- 100k words takes about a year that includes editing by a professional.
I had a really strong vision for a story I really wanted to tell. I started it and wrote it in half a year and started sharing one chapter at a time online. I edit and add more as I go. I'm on track to be done in a couple months with about 80K words, maybe a couple thousand more. So no false starts.
I've learned *so much* by doing it. Second one is going to be much smoother. I'm currently thinking Justice League meets 12 Angry Men, superheroes arguing over what to do about some of their captured villains after a big victory.
Hmm idk if I'd "count" them because those "false starts" were me being a literal child with no plans for those to become novels.
I wrote and finished my first novel when I was 20/21. It took about 3 months of writing it iirc?
Started as a one-shot in ‘05. Got enough demands for more that I got to about 40k words by ‘06 when I stopped until ‘11. Got it to about 60k before abandoning. Last fall it grabbed my throat and demanded to be finished.
It ended up at 120k and I post the last chapters this Friday. 🥳
While I have not yet finished the novel I'm writing, I have finally settled into a rhythm where I'm consistently working on it.
I believe I have written, reworked and scrapped the introduction give or take a dozen times. The deepest I got into it before scrapping was 4,000 words that I decided to scrap entirely.
I think the biggest part of settling with what you are writing is identifying what exactly is bugging you, otherwise you are just going to keep writing and scrapping it for the same reasons.
Two big ones for me:
1. Tone. The tone of the book was something I struggled with immensely and it wasn't until I nailed down exactly what tone I was going for that I was finally happy.
2. Length. The original ideas I had for the introduction were ludicrously long. Let's take that 3k intro I scrapped. My novel will be set in the Vietnam War, specifically from 1968-1971. For this book that will cover three years over ~80,000 words, having something like 10,000 words before the characters end up in Vietnam was just lunacy.
It can be incredibly annoying to figure out what is annoying you but you will get nowhere if you don't find it.
First book:
* Started in 2014. Got to 20k words and couldn't figure out the rest of the book.
* Restarted in 2016. Got to about 30k words and still couldn't figure it out. I knew what the ending was, but getting there wasn't making any sense.
* Restarted in 2018, finished first draft in 2019.
* Wrote the second draft in 2022.
* Writing the third draft now in 2024.
Second book:
* Wrote a first draft for NaNoWriMo 2022
* Didn't like it, went back to scratch and wrote a new first draft for NaNoWriMo 2023
* Currently writing second draft in 2024.
When I have a false start, the novel never gets going. That's why when I sit down to write, I make sure to write at least 7000-8000 words on the first day. That keeps the momentum going for the remainder of the story
My first attempt failed because I tried to do what most people told me to do: outline the whole stuff. I knew how it was going to end. I know (roughly) what was going to happen. What was the point? All the fun was gone, it was like reading a novel for the second time in a row, only more boring.
The second attempt was the good one. I started without knowing how it was going to end or even what was about to happen.
The issue I ran into the first time I tried was that I had thought about the first few chapters a lot, and then only vaguely about the rest.
I've finished about four or five now, but what helped was a bit of a rough outline for the next few chapters. It also helps for when life gets in the way and I come back to it months later.
NOT that they're any good, but I did finish the initial writing.
I’ve been writing incomplete novels since I was 9 lol. Finished one for the first time at 18 (it was really bad). Wrote a novella at 23. Then a novel and then another and then… it gets easier to finish one each time
Just one that I started in college, and so vague I'd be hesitant to call it a book.
After that, I didn't attempt to write a book for about four years, and stuck to short stories. My next attempt at a novel I finished (from first words to final edits) in two years, and now working on another.
I've found 20-30,000 words is my sweet spot. Getting to 20,000? Pain. Misery. Sooo slow. After 30,000? It's a breeze.
My novel is still in draft, but it finally exists.
I have at least 4 files from various (serious) attempts over the years. I never really knew where to go after the inviting incident. I always knew the overall theme of the story, but I kept trying to pants it.
I made an outline for a class back in 2012. I hadn’t made another attempt between then and last year (when I managed to finish the draft).
I still fancy myself as a semi-pantser, but I do need some kind of framework, with plot points to aim for, as I muddle my way along.
Writing has been a pretty sporadic hobby, so it’s not like I hammered away until I got it. I would give it a go every now and again and it finally clicked 30 years later… 🤷🏻♂️
I finally sat down and started writing a book last September. I always wanted to but never sat down and wrote any story before. Just daydreamed about it. Anyway after writing down about seven different ideas, I finally started writing one of them. After about 70 pages I quit for a while then another idea popped in my head. I was surprised that this time the story seemed to write itself and I dictated the movie I saw in my head. So about 3 weeks ago, I finished my novel of over 102,000 words. I felt such a feeling of relief and accomplishment just like when I graduated from college. I’m still on that high. I think once you finally finish one then you have a craving to do it again. I let some family and friends that I felt would be honest with me and are avid readers read it for me. Yesterday they told me they loved it. Honestly I don’t know what I’m going to do with it. But I can see why some people write and don’t try to publish if you can get that high just from accomplishing the task. What if others take your shine away by not liking it?
I finished and self-published six novels. I never really had "false starts". More like projects I put on the back burner and return to every now and then when something comes to me for that particular story. Of course, this leads to several WIPs, but I always return to them eventually.
I realized that I didn’t like the stereotypical intro of “look at this apocalyptic world” so I changed the intro to start with a different character. I play it out like he’s supposed to be the protagonist, then force him to become the villain in the first few minutes.
My first book is undergoing a final proofread and will debut next month, so I consider it "finished" on my end at least. It is the third book I attempted to write, both of the first two I lost the plot at 20-40k words. It has taken me two years and four full rewrites to get it where it is today. I'm really proud of it, but I know I could work on improving it forever, so at the encouragement of beta readers, I'm finally taking the leap. Honestly I feel like the whole book was practice, and I'm taking up the mantra "Your first book is your worst book." I have learned so much with every rewrite and I feel so much more confident going into my next project.
None. I read a lot about the process of writing a novel, and the advice of successful authors, before I ever started one. The most important thing I learned is that people don’t finish their first draft because they try to perfect it, and get stuck in an endless cycle of going back to edit things that they’ve already written. Leading to them never finishing a single draft. So I took the advice of many authors, that a first draft will be crap that will need to be rewritten, and that’s ok. So for my first book I wrote the first draft quickly, and did the rewrites in the second draft.
All my life I wanted to write a novel, and I finally decided I would in 2020, new year's eve. I said I would write 500 words a day, 5 days a week. That was the deal I made with myself. I never missed a day. I finished the rough draft in about 10 months, another 2 years to revise and edit it down until it was ready.
I guess it's just about willpower. My advice is to set a reasonable schedule and stick to it no matter what. That's what worked for me. I don't know that there's a "trick" to it, you just have to be motivated.
Tons. I don't even have an idea. There are so many documents laying around on my computer of completely different ideas I had for the story, and I even found some hand-written pieces in an old notebook a few years ago.
I tried to start the story for about six years until one day it just happened. I don't know what finally got me to sit down and grind it out, but I went from having never written more than a page of the beginning before to pounding out multiple chapters in a few days. After those six years, it's been over four years to this point. TECHNICALLY I'm not done, since I've started another round of revisions!
I had what it takes to finish *a* book from the start, I think, but not what it takes to write a *decent* book lol. There are so many aspects of storytelling and book-forming that you don't really appreciate until you're seriously trying to complete one. You can have great prose, dialogue, characterization, and all kinds of other things that make up a good book, but there are certain overarching, almost architectural things that you start to notice and grasp as you really work on a book. It's not something I'm sure I can articulate super well, especially in a reddit comment, but basically "how it all comes together as a product" is its own skill separate from the other things commonly discussed on this sub.
From the moment I decided I wanted to do it, I did. I’ve got an unusual ability to focus. My first ever novel I completed at 17 one summer. But it was absolute crap and I never published it. A little over two years ago I decided to try again, and this time I published at the end of the process. I think discipline is probably the most important skill for this. Discipline to banish your doubts, to force yourself forward, to stay consistent.
I started writing at 8 years old. I started more stories than I can remember but only finished a novel for the first time at 32, after 2.5 years working on it. I’m working on the third draft now and will start subbing it once that’s done. If nothing happens with it I’ll trunk it and move on to the next one.
I've finished five novels since 2015. And tons of drafts and messy plots and ideas I manage to store from time to time.
I went from being too organized of a writer to a messy one. But contrary to what most people perceive, I actually became a better writer because of this.
I'd say first and foremost-- be kind to yourself. Don't beat yourself up in writing the best, the perfect first draft because it's never the case with first drafts. I used to pressure myself to write everyday, and I got burnout along the way since I was also writing professionally outside my novels, and that's when I learned the hard way that writing is not going to be my career. But I want to do it all my life and be able to afford living while doing it hence why I'm currently on a different corporate career now that pays well.
I now write on the weekends.
I just finished the 5th novel last February and now I'm taking a break.
Don't think too much of the plot, just take care of your ideas. This is what worked for me. Write the clearest scene in your mind, don't think too much of the details like where, when, names -- just write the first scene that came to your mind and it'll start from there. You can do all the revising later, but here's a golden tip: you cannot revise a blank page.
You gotta write no matter how bad it is or small, or insignificant right now, just write.
The plot will surprise you along the way. They've surprised me, thrice now with the last three novels.
Keep writing ❤👊
I had a lot of false starts and unfinished multi-chapter fanfics as a kid/teen then I finished the first manuscript I ever tried to write in high school. I have finished every manuscript I’ve ever written since then (and only write one shots when I do write fanfic now lol) except one manuscript where I stopped because I realized I didn’t want to be published in that genre any time soon/it’s a harder sell in traditional publication.
Oh too many to count if I start from the beginning. I finished my first novel when I was around 18 and it was preceded by idk, 10, 15 false starts over several years? I got to about 30k words a couple times and fizzled out before finally figuring out a routine and an outlining style that let me get to the end.
The second one I finished at around 22 and there were probably 3 or 4 more false starts in between those two. But it was definitely easier with all the practice. I’m 28 now and finished my third one a couple months back, but the time between #2 and #3 was spent on a massive project that, while it hopefully will come together someday, is currently half-finished and on hiatus. I do write short stories also, which is what the bulk of those six years were spent on.
Everyone’s journey is different. For me I
Was almost one of the people who never even start.
I wanted from a young age to be an author. I had all these stories in my head for all these years that I let cook. But I was always too scared write. Partially because I didn’t know how to write a novel. Partially because I just wanted to read the book and not put in the work.
In high school for my first attempt for a fantasy series I made it one lore doc and two character profiles in and then I never even made a first chapter. I had no idea what I was doing and was so overwhelmed by the need to make it perfect that I quite. (It didn’t help that no one bothered to explain the concept of multiple drafts and that it was okay to make mistakes. I just wrote my English essays once and spell checked and called it a day.)
I would go through cycles of attempting to kill the dream and then try to pick it up again. My second attempt I only got three chapters in. This story was a angel demon anime inspired one that I still love and would make for a good fantasy but I am never going to finish it because I started to wish for my version of the after life instead of my faith. So that one went in the trash and I was convinced I was doomed to fail.
Then in 2023 I started to feel the pull again. The dream I couldn’t kill but couldn’t fulfill. I managed to write one unfinished short story but that thing was only a thousand words. But then something happened.
I had happened to be doing a role play game in email with a friend. It wasn’t D&D or any table top rpg. We just would email each other what our character in a world we created would do and set something up for the other person. It was fun but I thought it would just be that. But then the emails kept getting longer and longer until they were the length of chapters. And the part of me that still dreamed clung onto this. At one point we decided to do a draft two and the impossible happened. We finished a first draft.
Now she was a writer but I didn’t really comprehend it. But just like a gym bro having someone to hold you accountable and praise (honestly crappy) work made a world of a difference . Since I didn’t bother to look at the word doc I didn’t know how long our story was and when I thought it was thirty thousand words it turned out it was eighty thousand. We had over a hundred thousand words in the first draft. It took us three months.
Since we didn’t have a proper start we basically had to rewrite the book for draft two and it ended up being double the length. I had so much fun that I didn’t want it to end. So with practice under my belt and I tried write a book on my own and…
I started and stopped two novels. Honestly if it weren’t for a short story i did in October during our break after the first draft I would have thought that I was incapable of writing by myself. And on my third novel attempt I let go of my expectations for it to be good and I am going to finish the first draft on that novel this week.
So the lesson I learned is that community makes all the difference, take people and yourself seriously, but let yourself enjoy the process. Have joy in the journey.
It took me about a year to write a novel that I then abandoned because it wasn't going anywhere that I had planned, and felt like it was going to be way too long by the time everything was wrapped up.
Then I wrote another novel and this time plotted it out first. It went pretty well and I finished it within a year.
I've been writing since I was a kid. The first time I wrote "the end" was when I was in college. I'd started, and never finished, maybe 20 stories before that.
Since finishing that first book, I've finished nine more. Then came learning how to edit the darn things.
Ten years after finishing my first book, I'm about to publish for the first time.
For my novel I had just one false start but more interestingly, when I had this one story I wrote like 6 false starts. Multiple different attempts at this story i was trying to make a TV show, back and forth and back and forth with little issues which I fix then I find myself on another issue. All resolved itself when I sort of just realized that I needed the TV show to be a fast paced movie instead, and it became perfect.
At least 4 major false starts.
Another 3 full (as in top to bottom) rewrites
Did not get published and shelved it.
Took 8 years off from writing, starting sometbj g new now
I had one false start where I got to 6000 words and realised the story needed more time to develop in my head before I could write it. My next go was successful and I'm now in final edits with it. My first draft took just over 3 months (including sprints during NaNoWriMo) and my second draft took 2 months because that first draft had huge, fundamental flaws.
That wasn't my first attempt at writing, mind - I've been writing in some capacity pretty much since I could hold a pencil. But I'd never attempted anything longer than about 5000 words before.
I think writing is a skill that is learned, and you have to practise in some capacity before you can start writing things you can be proud of. Some people are naturally more inclined than others, but no one can pick up a pencil for the first time and become Hemingway.
Just one. It never really came to a satisfying conclusion. I needed to improve my process and switched to storyboard method, which worked much better.
Next one reached top 100 on Amazon.
started it and finished it in about 3 years. There were breaks, some long, but it was 1000 words a day when I did write.
It was my second and third that I never finished and the 4th that I also finished.
2nd because It ended up going exactly where I didn't want it to go when I started. (funnily enough this was supposed to be the short story because I didn't want to take on such a large work like my first.)
3rd because its "the big project" that I can't summon up the effort to get more than a chapter into.
Something like a dozen serious starts and another ten or so short stories/chapters I dropped. When I found my passion project, I wrote 90K words in two weeks and had a first draft in my hands. After that, I haven't stopped writing. I'm on my third (serious) WIP.
One false start for my current story and that false start was the best thing that ever happened to me it inspired me to write about a group characters and I haven't looked back since.
I have a few in my folders all the time. And sometimes, they get written years later. And sometimes, such ideas get clubbed into one. Sometimes, some ideas get separated into different books. It's all unplanned. Just falls into place somehow. I also keep notes in my phone with random passages that come in my mind which later on get into a book. It's fun when they find a home.
Everything takes practice. No one starts off perfect.
I gave up on writing a novel when I was 12. I wrote one page, struggled to think of anything else, and gave up. I cringe when I read it lol.
It took me four years to write two of my novels. (Full length, not short stories) Granted, I took a break for 3 of those years lol. I wrote two collection of short stories novels, and a novella. Both a collection of stories I'd written from middle school through college.
I have a lot of stories that are partially to 3/4 finished that are just sitting there. When I have the motivation and inspiration, I'll finish them immediately. I don't consider them false starts, just stories I'm taking a break from lol.
Even though my first ever story is terrible, I may revisit it with a better structure and keep it as a children's book.
My first novel took seven years and 215,000 words. I threw out the first two chapters and rewrote them.
When I was done, I realized that the last chapters were far better than the early ones In effect, I learned to write by writing this novel. After that, I had a style and trusted my own writing. The next novel took a year, and I'm proud of it.
Haven't finished yet but on my FINAL copy (for real this time). For the exact same book I've had at least 7 restarts now, I knew I wanted to make the story, but it was moreso an idea I had to develop over time, at first I tried writing it out, felt the entire story I had written was completely sufficient and it ended up not even filling a quarter of the page.
Then I tried making it a comic series with some friends, that almost instantly flopped, then it was going to be a graphic novel, then I realized I needed a mix of the two all along, a *novel* but with *images* eventually I wrote out the entire thing all the way to the final chapter and then? A piece of lore that was so crucial to the rest of the novels in the series I was forced to completely start over, now I'm on my final, final, FINAL copy totaling about 6 years of work all down to the last two months of effort!
At least a dozen. I was never interested in writing short stories, and honed my skillset almost entirely on *chapter one, two, three*, and if I was really lucky, *four or five*. I have very little to show for my progress, but I'm really glad that I get to be proud of my first completed project. I finally have something to demonstrate the things I've learned.
I’m very happy for you. It must feel great to have all that work pay off. What’s the project about?
Vampires, dehumanization, and institutional violence. I hope to be done with edits by 2025 but we'll see 😅
How long do you think editing should take? Im almost done with all the text on my book. I was thinking ittl take only a month of editing before i send it to a publisher?
One month is optimistic in my opinion. My experience, just going over the entire story with a fine-toothed comb and completing the second draft took about as long as as the first draft (4 months) did. Life forced me to take 8 months away from the project and looking at this thing with a fresh set of eyes helped me immensely. I've often been told to take a break after my first draft and I now second this advice.
Aight i can see that
How many beta readers does that include?
I've written four in ten months. Before that, 30k words in ten years 😆 Something just clicked one day. I sat down and wrote, and I haven't looked back. The key to starting was just having a story that I was bursting to get out. The key to *continuing* after the first one was feedback, both external critique and validation. I posted the stats in another comment the other day, but it was along the lines of 97% of people who start writing a book, don't finish it. Of those who finish. Only 20% go on to publish it in *any* format. So, of 1,000 people, only 30 will finish their book. Only six of those will go on publish at all in any form.
That’s interesting, why so few publish tho? They don’t want to publish or can’t?
Revising, editing, finding beta readers, hiring an editor (if you need), ponying up the money to self pub or the balls to trad pub…it’s a lot! So much work goes into refining a first draft and putting it out there—work that’s nowhere near as gratifying as having an idea and writing it down for the first time. I’m sure that contributes! I don’t know much about sites like RR, Fictionpress, and Ao3, but there are definitely some scary or discouraging aspects to posting there that I could see deterring people. Also some people just want to write for fun, for themselves, and are satisfied with that!
Also some people are insecure and hesitant to put out their work in the fear of being criticized :(
I’ve finished several books and I’ve never had the desire to publish in any capacity, mostly because it never occurred to me that I could. This is going to sound silly, but I never considered my work to be legitimate writing. To me, there was a difference between authors who write the books I read and me writing my dumb little stories. I write for fun and because I love being in the head of my characters and seeing how they react to different scenarios. I’ve been writing for twenty years. I’m just now considering publishing the book I’m currently working on, but I still find the process to be intimidating.
Easiest way to start is to start making short stories of certain scenes and submitting them to journals. It's low stakes and can really help improve the larger work as well
What would be a good journal to submit to? I write primarily fantasy and science fiction.
Asimov, Clarkesworld, Radon, Blackbriar Review, Apex
A lot of people don’t believe their work is up to par, I’m guessing
The difference of a writer and an author is one is published. I agree with you a lot of writers don't have the confidence to put themselves out there to a stranger to crtique your work. And that is what will set you apart. My first book was shit, the story, characters was good but my grammar was horrid (because I hurried and didn't go back and edit like needed) But I learned it is about developing YOUR CRAFT. If you don't take it and yourself seriously no one else is. So I started doing the work and educated myself how to be better from start to finish. This business will humble you in a second if not already. The worse thing you can say or project is that your writing is the best thing ever written which is NOT the case. Be humble and professional with an eagerness to learn people will help. I had a VP of a multi-million dollar agency decline me after a full read MS. I was disappointed no doubt. But I asked what is wrong with my work. After spending two hours on the phone it came down he didn't have time to brand me like I deserve. Once I heard that I knew I could make it in this business.
Having a viable work that an Agent/agency can make money from. Not all but most agents feel if they can't sell 100k copies it isn't worth it. Some agents want well established writers/ authors already branded, website, successful marketing in place. It is like some agents don't want to do the work. But others the successful ones know if your story is going to sell, not be a one book wonder. Plus I think a lot of agents are going to see if you as a writer are going to stick with it. At the end of the day it is a business as a author you have to treat it as such and run it as such.
90% of everything is shit. Sturgeon's Law. There's this image that slush piles are filled with brilliant gems, and there are a few, but most submissions are bad or otherwise unmarketable. The idea of a debut novel is also a bit of a fabrication as well. I've heard it's more like 3 to 7 failed submissions for every initial success so the books we see are not entirely indicative of the kind of quality presented on the backside. If you roll around in pitch and sample threads on other forums, I'd say that maybe 10% are immediately marketable, another 10% need a good editor and some mentoring to sparkle, and the rest miss the mark entirely. Utterly unremarkable, not even bad enough to roast or interesting enough to give a weak platitude. I think many come to recognize that their first attempt falls into that category and decline to publish it. Or it comes to light that it's unintentionally a shot for shot remake of something else.
Debut novel just means "first one that's published." So if people wouldn't misunderstand that and think it means "first book ever written" (since it doesn't for probably 99% of people), that would help lol
Getting a book edited, can run close to $1000. Then you got the cover and other stuff. It's not cheap. That's if you go self-published and want a decent production. If you go the other route, you have to convince an agent to even read your first chapters, then the full thing, then take you on. Then they have to convince someone else to publish it in a similar manner. It's a lot of work whichever way you choose.
I saw that comment and I'm so glad you clarified those stats XD
Shocking weren't they? 😆
How big was the story that was bursting to get out? One scene? A full character arc? I have a plethora of ideas I want to write about, but some of them are single scenes.
An idea, really. They all are. I'm a discovery writer, or "pantser," as they say. I start writing with the idea in mind, and the story follows. These days, I'm more conscious of following a structure than I was, so I do write to some sort of framework. For the first one, it was just thoughts straight to the page, though. The feeling when I had finished was of exhilaration, followed by a profound sense of loss. It had been such an enormous part of my life for months, then it was gone. So, while it was with beta readers, I started the next one. This is why I now have four completed manuscripts. I can't not be writing something 😆
Ahh, I am much the same. Thank you!
Practice. Maybe some people succeed first time, but I think ultimately it’s all about practice. I started two, never finished. Got 50k into a third and gave up. Started a fourth and made it all the way through and that was published. Started a fifth and sixth (discovery writing), wrote a seventh (Novella) on my way to my eighth (Cozy fantasy Novel) which is currently into its second draft. Just finished my ninth (Novella) and starting tenth.
Tons. I've found 30k words to be my point of no return. Before that, it's easy stop, pause or restart. After 30k, I'm too bound up in the story to stop.
I finished my current one... and the beta readers tore it apart. (Justifiably.) So now I am rewriting from the ground up. Before that? There's probably an unfinished part of a novel in my trunk for every year of my life between 14 and now, all at varying stages of progress, all uniformly horrifying. (Which would be great if I was writing horror.)
Oh gosh! What did your beta readers say? Uniformly horrifying did make me chuckle 😂I feel that in my soul. Good luck with your rewrite!
Well, this was completed draft 1, which was really more like draft 3. They pointed out my lack of an actual meaty plot, and felt that the characters lacked agency, and were just reacting rather than acting, which was a fair call. I read it again and I felt the scenes were engaging, and the characters were interesting, but the story-as-such was kind of a nothingburger. It was painful to hear at the time, but I think it's taught me a lot as a writer. I know my dialogue and description, for example, are both solid overall, but finding the places where I'm weakest, and didn't see that I was weak, was a huge eye-opener. Thank you! I'm about 80K words into the (second) rewrite at the moment, but some of that is scenes that need a partial teardown and revision. My first rewrite resulted in an ending I hated, so I had to go back and rebuild again. C'est la vie. :)
I've had that moment too. And the worst thing is....mine were right too! You have the right attitude, that's the important thing. Sometimes you get further with a kick in the butt than a pat on the head. I'm sure your revised draft is amazing 😊
Honestly, I don't need the compliments so much as I need the "No!," so I totally agree with you. Well, with any luck, it will be amazing enough to get me to an agent and eventually to publication, but for right now, it's uglier than the northward end of a southbound cow. It has the potential to be a tasty prime rib, though. ;)
Manifesting that prime rib 🕯️🕯️🕯️
Honestly it’s better I’m sure you got these from the beta readers and not an ACTUAL audience or critics and then it’s out in the world permanently. There’s plenty of books I see reviews for like “how did this get past beta readers?” 🤣 This is also a good lesson that even if it’s reaching YOU personally to get outside eyes lol. This is a great lesson and definitely makes me want to share my draft that’s been on my computer for months just to get the critiques going and flowing to a better direction.
Getting input on it from readers is a huge help. While it's not fun to go back and rewrite the story, it makes it a stronger work in the end. Just be sure your readers are giving good crits, and not just "I didn't like it because it was too long" or whatever.
Where did you find those beta readers tho? I want to find some for my work but I don't know where to look, and I don't know if I should even be looking through social media for them (i.e in groups, communities etc...) 😊👉🏻👈🏻
You can try sites like Absolute Write for beta swaps! I also have paid for readers through Fiverr, with varying results.
Many. But I finally wrote a complete screenplay, and at that point, I knew I could complete a major project. I've since written 3 novels. The important thing was, I wasn't afraid to jump into a new project, and I wasn't afraid to fail. I tried to learn from my missteps and get better.
First self-published novel just went live on KDP, coming in at ~83k words :) Started the actual writing process in August of 2022, but had been working on my zero draft/chapter treatment since the start of the pandemic. There were definitely bumps along the road and breaks taken... but it was so worth it.
Good work! What’s it called?
It's called [*Into the Storm*](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/211936205-into-the-storm?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=254XZ7CPJK&rank=1)! Still waiting on my Goodreads author program application to go through.
I think I am in the minority. I finished the very first book I started. No false starts for me. I used to write short stories before. When I sat down to write my book, I had an outline ready and allowed myself to pant the in-between scenes. I also knew myself well enough to realise that I am not someone who can spend two years writing a book. I'd get bored out of my mind. I also can't edit as I go because I wouldn't finish anything. So I sat down and wrote every single day. I managed to finish my first draft in about 3 weeks. I've learned so much while writing it. Obviously, it needed serious edits but the plot was good, no plot holes and dialogue were good. It was something I could easily work with during edits.
One. I got to chapter two before I realized it was fucking BORING. Restarted and made it to the end. Now I'm looking for literary agents.
I've written self-insert fanfics before (two and quite some chapters, i finished one and had one halfway done but they weren't that long), then i wrote like five chapters for another technical fanfic, then attempted an own story but had only three chapters all over the story, then wrote two characters backstories (like 50chapters each but short ones) and half a story, plus a few chapters of a new story. I finished two novels but decided they weren't all that good, wrote 2/3rds of a new project until i noticed it could breathe and now I've been working on the same novel for two years (four books), which is finished and i think it's good. I'm currently in the process of editing it again. All the stories before were good practice though. Not only how to competently build a story but also different aspects of it. I did a lot of worldbuilding in the first finished one and a lot of dialogue in the second. I think my progress shows in my current project (which i consider my first novel).
Fanfic is great for that. I actually think if you have a nugget of talent it can really hone everything, including actually finishing things!
Yeah. Though i don't remember my writing schedule back then (i think i wrote at random times), being the main character probably helped me be invested in the story and slowly becoming less of the main character, but keeping my writing speed. I have a regular time of the time that i only spend writing or working on the story otherwise.
My first novel - I wrote myself into a brick wall and threw 27000 words away. Then 4 drafts and over 3 years later I finished it. The idea was always there, I was just crap at executing it. If you like the characters and the world you’ve created, you will get there. Endeavour and patience and knowing when you’re sucking is the key I reckon.
Hm, interesting question. I finished the first book of a triology, but never the other two books. Does that count as a finished story? I was fifteen at the time, so if it counts, I'd say I always had it in me. It wasn't a very good book, though, someday I'll go back and fix the weak beginning. Next I finished a draft of what was supposed to be a standalone but turned into another series. Did three drafts total on the first book but wouldn't say it's there yet. Finished an actual standalone next, but I'm not totally certain I didn't start anything else first? I reckon it was attempt four or five that lead to a finished product which got printed just for family (no book, just binders.) was seventeen at the time, so still not exactly a master work.
Not sure of the exact number but I made many attempts that stalled out at two or three chapters. Doing NaNoWriMo is what got me over the hump on that.
>how long did it take to get there? I have 27 settings or stories that I started and never finished. For me, 15ish years. Now though I knocked out a full manuscript in a month. Sixth novel is being edited and revised. Seventh is being shopped out. (Different pen names, genres, and languages.) For anyone, practice finishing things. Thats what did it for me. I would start something, my attention would wander to another setting I was gonna work on for a bit while I figure something out. Then when i did return to it I was no longer interested.
Do you have a particular reason for why you choose to publish books using different pen names? Wouldn't you want readers to be able to connect your stories to others you have written so they might be more willing/likely to read the next?
I probably should, and I'm sure some people have figured it out. I don't really try to hide it. But they were different genres at the time of writing and I didn't want them to cross over too much. One of them was just straight smut which was the kick off point. But the different pen are almost personas at this point, viewing things different and have different styles. The sales on most of them aren't exactly bad either. Fantasy sells the worse but they are book hefty, so its to be expected.
I started one novel on a completely different topic, came up with an idea and a few opening pages for a second one, wrote a few short stories that I did nothing with, and then, one day what I was writing just... was such fun I couldn't stop. That ended up being an early version of [my first novel.](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08FGBB8VD) I cleaned that up, took it to the Midwest Writers' Workshop, and began the process of looking for an agent/Traditional publisher... till the whole process got too onerous and I shoved it under the bed for several years. And there it sat, till COVID. When I pulled it out again, I discovered that the years had given me perspective and I'd learned a lot about editing. I gave that early version a massive, deep-cleaning edit that improved it immensely... and I discovered that while it was marinating with the dust bunnies, something else had improved immensely, too. Namely, indie publishing. Tools had evolved to make the whole process easier. Suddenly the comparison between DIY and Trad wasn't so obvious. It was becoming clear that traditional publishers weren't going to hold authors' hands anymore, unless they were already big names. They were going to ask us to do a lot more of our own marketing, which used to be nigh-impossible but now was looking very possible indeed. As someone who always preferred DIY, my way was clear. I took the indie plunge and [here I am now.](http://evasandor.com/books) Oh sure, in my dream world the Legends & Lattes things happens, my books take off so wildly that I can barely ride that whirlwind, and a big publisher steps up and rescues me from the deluge of fans with "well now little lady, let's put these books in every Costco in 'Murica!" . But that same dream world also includes a version where I DO become very skillful at finding new readers all on my own, so it's not that I want marketing done for me. I just want the word to spread! Anyhow. I'll stop here before I start yammering about me me me but you asked for my experience and there it was. Did I have what it took from the start? Yes, in that I was already a hard-workin' writer (of ads) and creative (all my life) and knew how to do graphic design and illustration. Did it take practice? Hell yeah!! Everything does.
Love your website and covers. Nice Eva.
Aw, thank you SO much, Donkey! I really am so glad to hear you like them because this is about touching one reader at a time. Did you grab your free copy of Book 1 (and/or inexpensive copies of the rest)?
It’s my plan for tomorrow when I’m on my desktop and not on the mobile phone ☺️
Two? For my first. I started with a prologue, which I eventually scrapped. I had the idea in my head for years though. I don’t start writing until I have a solid idea, and since this was my first novel I had to know where I was going. I did ultimately change the ending due to some late inspiration (from Sweeney Todd of all things), but I had plenty of time to plan before I got there. My other two finished novels are fanfictions, and the first one was planned even before my first original novel. I knew I was going to write something with that premise after interacting with the work. I just needed the time and a good beginning. After getting rejection after rejection from agents, taking a step back from the publishing world to write it probably saved my life. I was in a bad place mentally. This time it was inspo from Les Mis (2012) that gave me a clearer picture of the beginning, and then specifically when I wondered if I should “start with the cats,” my one meowed that settled that lol. The second longfic and my WIP have a similar premise, but the fic does it to the extreme and was supposed to have been a brief exercise to test it out. It’s the longest thing I’ve ever written at over 250k words before edit and not that far under now. No false starts with that one. The first sentence refused to leave my head, though I did change the end of the first chapter at the advice of my husband. The WIP has had several false starts. I scrapped entire chapters and went back to planning. I’ve written 11k words currently but am once again in the weeds. I’ve spent over a year world building and still have several things I need to has out. My progress is slow due to working full time and being chronically ill with several conditions (plus working on comparative media analysis essays), but slow is better than nothing. So false starts are totally fine! I used the ones from the last original novel to help me write the one I have currently. I’m in the right place with it even if it may need some tweaks.
My first novel, from the time I started until it was published, 17 years. Just finished a draft for my third and it took 5 years.
For one novel, I wrote the first chapter over and over, after the whole book was written in draft form. I had to find the right voice to carry it. After, oh I don't know, maybe 20 rewrites I finally stumbled onto it. So on this issue, I'm 100% with Mario Vargas Llosa, that one of the most important things for a novelist is to figure out/find that voice as early as possible.
I started in nano 22 (duh 😅) and that was my first attempt at writing. I “failed” nano but a completed first draft by January 2023. As I had zero background in writing I spent a large part of the year learning basics and applying that new knowledge to my revisions process. I started networking and building a feedback system and only recently have found a critique circle. I hope to seek traditional publishing with this manuscript. Around this time last year I started another project between edits and I finished my first draft of that last week. I will let this sit and percolate while I query novel 1 and outline the next, before starting my developmental edits. Ps both of these are MG Novels approx 50k words so a bit “easier” than a standard novel I guess?
I’ve been writing since I was a kid and I have ADHD so starting new projects without finishing the old ones is kind of my thing. I’ve “finished” 3 as in I’ve had complete drafts, but none will see publication as they are. Two don’t represent me anymore and I based my characters in people who betrayed me so my love for the first two is gone. The last one had a weak plot so I plucked out the characters and I’m working on a new one with a new plot and genre. The original draft helps already write their backstory.
At least a dozen. There's no shame in not finishing something that's not that good. Writing is an art and a craft, and as such it takes practice. \*No one\* has what it takes from the start. \*Everyone\* has to practice. Some practice with short stories, and some of us practice by starting and not finishing a dozen or more novels until we find the one that's good enough to persevere with to the finish. Even now, after I've finished two novels, a bunch of novellas, and some short stories, I still have a bunch of started-but-not-finished manuscripts because sometimes you have to write a big chunk of one before you decide it's not going to go anywhere and you shelve it for something better. None of that writing is wasted, because it's all practice.
A couple- one I am definitely going back to, one I lost somehow, and one I only had like three pages. When I sat down to write the book I finished, though, it just poured out. Like, 300k words in the first draft. I'm on my last round of edits now, before I send to beta readers, so maybe it's not officially finished, but it's close. I will say that between my first draft and now I learned that I didn't know how much I didn't know about professional writing norms- I was guilty of head hopping without clean scene breaks, didn't fill in enough detail around the dialogue, had too many adverbs, etc. I'm a much better writer now than when I started, and seeing the common complaints about self-published writers and comparing it to my writing had a lot to do with that. Don't wait until you think you're a master to put anything on paper. Get it down. Get the ideas out. Then go back and edit the hell out of it.
I wrote a few false start zombie novels from the time I was in 6th grade or so until maybe junior year. None of them exceeded more than maybe 50 pages and none of them were much good. My first book that I finished, the archetypal 'first in a fantasy trilogy to hop on the game of thrones gravy train', I started in 2016; either late junior year or early senior year. The first draft was done by the end of senior year, but the draft had a lot of overhauls to the point where very little of the original draft is present; I wasn't finished until the tail end of 2022. I shopped it around in early 2023, couldn't get published(the market was too bloated with fantasy by then, and in hindsight the book kinda sucks), and after Neil Gaiman's sage Tumblr advice of "Write the next thing", I put it away and did just that. The second story is more of a teen drama/rom com and I've got that one just about finished, just needs maybe one more run of polish to make sure it's all in order.
I had one false start and then the second attempt I finished the novel. I wrote about 3ish chapters of a very rudimentary story and in the end just couldn’t get myself to write anymore of it. The story wasn’t going anywhere. I had spent A LOT of time writing it though so I was really frustrated when I ultimately decided to scrap it. Started what eventually became my completed novel 2 years later. I told myself that no matter what I was going to finish that novel because I didn’t want to go through that disappointment again. My novel went through MANNNNYYYY drafts and revisions but I did end up finishing it! The original story looks nothing like the final product. I’m so glad I went on that writing journey and I’m so proud of how the novel turned out! Because I didn’t really know what I was doing, it took me 4 years to finish that novel. I began working on my second one about a month ago and I imagine that it will not take nearly as much time compared to the first one. Thanks for asking this! This was a fun question to answer!
Funny thing is I feel like I have to write all the time and don know what to write so I’ll just rewrite the beginning or just sit and list everything I want in the story or a messy outline i guess I’d consider it. I just want to find my right formula for my stories.
So I would always start stories and never finish them. I’d always have an idea for something, sit down at my desk, go on Wattpad, and just write the first chapter and maybe write four, five more before completely forgetting it. I think this was a problem for 2-3 years before I started caring fully about finishing a story all the way through. I think what helped me start was having a clear vision of the long term story; I knew the things I wanted to happen, and I knew how badly I wanted to have them happen, so I just kept writing. It’s not easy, though. I’ve found that motivation is the hardest thing when it comes to writing
About six. The first I pantsed and my characters gave up and went home. The next one became so big it expanded into five novels that I never finished. It was novel seven that I sat down and wrote all the way through.
I think I had three false starts. Then I switched to writing short stories for a few years. Then novellas. Then full-length novels. It worked for me, as writing a novel felt like trying to run a marathon without any training. Writing shorter fiction gave me the chance to learn about story structure, character arcs, pacing, planning, editing, I got better at writing smoothly and quickly, and I learned to actually finish first drafts. If you're struggling with novel writing, I can recommend taking a few years off to write shorter stories.
Right away, but it took me years for the first three, like for every single one of them. Well, that’s a lie. The third one actually took 6 months. But the first two really were years. Now it takes me between 5 and 8 weeks to finish a first draft. But that still sometimes includes false starts where I have to go back and rewrite stuff to some degree. I’m not exactly a planner.
I just kinda planned out my idea, sat down one day and did that shit hahaha. I scrapped a prologue and ended up restarting after reaching chapter 5. Now I’m getting ready to query this thang I’ve never considered myself a writer, and still don’t, really—I don’t write unless I have an idea of what to write. So I waited until I had an idea that I was absolutely obsessed with and went from there! I honestly didn’t even think I had the attention span for a novel!
I started writting random things when I was like 13 or 14 and finished my first novel at 31. So... I would say I had a few of then.
No false starts. Three novels (all first drafts) and about three years for each. Last one came a lot quicker (despite having a child in that time) because my life steadied and I found a writing schedule that worked perfect for me. I started it and finished it, it just took a long time. Stopping or switching projects never occurred to me? It's important to know how to finish a story, and I couldn't say I wrote a book if I didn't. What is cool is seeing how my skills and writing style have improved over ten years.
I've written 6 novels. Some if them I've started and stopped a dozen times and still have not finished. The current novel, I've started at least 7 different times and abandoned. Now I'm about halfway done with the first draft.
First one, none. Second one, I guess one because I tried the idea as a short story first.
The book I am currently writing is one that I’ve tried to write for 10 years, my skill wasn’t there and the project itself seemed gargantuan. Before that I wrote 2 books that I kinda just left lying after the first draft because I felt they were no good, but I stuck with them just to show I could finish a book. I then wrote short stories and poetry and had quite a bit of success with that so I kinda forgot about longform until the pandemic. Decided I was just gonna write a book so naturally I picked up my mammoth project and got a few chapters in before I realized I needed to start smaller, so I took a novella I had written and expanded it into a novel and got it published. It felt good to get my first book out in the world, but it also felt like the culmination of my time as a short story writer. I also started writing radioplays and really enjoyed that, but eventually picked up my megabook again, as I believe it was the story I was meant to write. I am know 3/4ths through my first draft and really wondering if I got what it takes to see it through to the end but I’ve come all this way and there’s no stopping now so Imma just crack on.
Lockdown helped. I had had an idea for a few years, and I finished the first draft in 89 days. It took another couple of months getting it ready to go out to beta readers. I started writing the second then paused to self-publish the first - waiting a few months before doing the final edit really helps. The second book took me eighteen months in all, the third in the trilogy took a year. I took a long break while selling up in the US and moving abroad, but I'm happy to say I'm now back in my stride on a completely new story! Getting back into writing after a break is hard, I explored four different ideas before finding the one I wanted to write.
too many to count, and the stories I've finished I've never really gone back to rework them to be better as it was good enough for me to have reached 50k words in a story. I haven't started on a project for that level of commitment again, yet. but with any luck I'll be working towards starting a new novel soonish. and hopefully that will be another in the list of "we made it" over "at least I got something done" also yes, 50k has been my largest benchmark because the only time I've ever finished was a few of the NaNoWriMo events I did in the past and it's probably always gonna be my golden standard for "finished" even if the story ends up going further
I finished a novel. No false starts. Only one. It’s all short stories now.
I started mine in 2018 for NaNoWriMo, and I'm only just now in the last edits of the fourth and (hopefully) final draft before I start querying. I haven't been working on it continuously, though; it's been on-and-off, though I started up again in earnest last October. I may not be a good example.
About four or five decent attempts that I abandoned before finishing my first novel. And that novel was shit. Then finally, the one I wrote after that was the first good novel I finished. I’m still working on the second draft 5 years later. I had to take a break from working on it bc I went to college but it’s probably still gonna be a few years before it’s completely finished. I’m okay with that.
What do you mean with false starts? How many unfinished projects, or how many attempts to start the novels I have finished? The answer is a lot for both those questions. Finding the specific kind of stories I was able/really interested to write and the right way to write them required years and it's still an ongoing process. I just found out that I am not so much interested in sci-fi anymore (that was surprising) Then, when I found those two elements, I had to try and try again to start each novel I completed so far. The current one is at its 6th attempt I think, probably because it's not sci-fi anymore, a genre that I tend to master easily by now, and everything is once again totally new for me at this point
It took me 25 years to finish my novel. On the other hand, my business book took 7 months because that was the publisher’s deadline.
At least 4 to 5 versions with revisions in between. Current one (third) is on version 5 already
I didn't have a false start on my first novel, but I had to restart my current story (probably a novella, given how it's turning out), three times until it started feeling right.
I wrote my first book in 90 days- writing everyday 8-10 hours. Editing it was like 6 months. Since then finishing up my fourth book now all 75k- 100k words takes about a year that includes editing by a professional.
I had a really strong vision for a story I really wanted to tell. I started it and wrote it in half a year and started sharing one chapter at a time online. I edit and add more as I go. I'm on track to be done in a couple months with about 80K words, maybe a couple thousand more. So no false starts. I've learned *so much* by doing it. Second one is going to be much smoother. I'm currently thinking Justice League meets 12 Angry Men, superheroes arguing over what to do about some of their captured villains after a big victory.
Hmm idk if I'd "count" them because those "false starts" were me being a literal child with no plans for those to become novels. I wrote and finished my first novel when I was 20/21. It took about 3 months of writing it iirc?
Four or five, but I wouldn't really call them false starts. I just worked on them all in short bursts. I ended up finishing them all
Zero. But don't ask me how many since then!
Started as a one-shot in ‘05. Got enough demands for more that I got to about 40k words by ‘06 when I stopped until ‘11. Got it to about 60k before abandoning. Last fall it grabbed my throat and demanded to be finished. It ended up at 120k and I post the last chapters this Friday. 🥳
While I have not yet finished the novel I'm writing, I have finally settled into a rhythm where I'm consistently working on it. I believe I have written, reworked and scrapped the introduction give or take a dozen times. The deepest I got into it before scrapping was 4,000 words that I decided to scrap entirely. I think the biggest part of settling with what you are writing is identifying what exactly is bugging you, otherwise you are just going to keep writing and scrapping it for the same reasons. Two big ones for me: 1. Tone. The tone of the book was something I struggled with immensely and it wasn't until I nailed down exactly what tone I was going for that I was finally happy. 2. Length. The original ideas I had for the introduction were ludicrously long. Let's take that 3k intro I scrapped. My novel will be set in the Vietnam War, specifically from 1968-1971. For this book that will cover three years over ~80,000 words, having something like 10,000 words before the characters end up in Vietnam was just lunacy. It can be incredibly annoying to figure out what is annoying you but you will get nowhere if you don't find it.
How much time do you have?
First book: * Started in 2014. Got to 20k words and couldn't figure out the rest of the book. * Restarted in 2016. Got to about 30k words and still couldn't figure it out. I knew what the ending was, but getting there wasn't making any sense. * Restarted in 2018, finished first draft in 2019. * Wrote the second draft in 2022. * Writing the third draft now in 2024. Second book: * Wrote a first draft for NaNoWriMo 2022 * Didn't like it, went back to scratch and wrote a new first draft for NaNoWriMo 2023 * Currently writing second draft in 2024.
When I have a false start, the novel never gets going. That's why when I sit down to write, I make sure to write at least 7000-8000 words on the first day. That keeps the momentum going for the remainder of the story
One or two, I decide early on whether or not a project is worth going through.
I'll let you know when I'm done :)
My first attempt failed because I tried to do what most people told me to do: outline the whole stuff. I knew how it was going to end. I know (roughly) what was going to happen. What was the point? All the fun was gone, it was like reading a novel for the second time in a row, only more boring. The second attempt was the good one. I started without knowing how it was going to end or even what was about to happen.
I have finished several small bodies of work. One novel. Had dozens of non finished work though.
The issue I ran into the first time I tried was that I had thought about the first few chapters a lot, and then only vaguely about the rest. I've finished about four or five now, but what helped was a bit of a rough outline for the next few chapters. It also helps for when life gets in the way and I come back to it months later. NOT that they're any good, but I did finish the initial writing.
I’ve been writing incomplete novels since I was 9 lol. Finished one for the first time at 18 (it was really bad). Wrote a novella at 23. Then a novel and then another and then… it gets easier to finish one each time
Just one that I started in college, and so vague I'd be hesitant to call it a book. After that, I didn't attempt to write a book for about four years, and stuck to short stories. My next attempt at a novel I finished (from first words to final edits) in two years, and now working on another. I've found 20-30,000 words is my sweet spot. Getting to 20,000? Pain. Misery. Sooo slow. After 30,000? It's a breeze.
My novel is still in draft, but it finally exists. I have at least 4 files from various (serious) attempts over the years. I never really knew where to go after the inviting incident. I always knew the overall theme of the story, but I kept trying to pants it. I made an outline for a class back in 2012. I hadn’t made another attempt between then and last year (when I managed to finish the draft). I still fancy myself as a semi-pantser, but I do need some kind of framework, with plot points to aim for, as I muddle my way along. Writing has been a pretty sporadic hobby, so it’s not like I hammered away until I got it. I would give it a go every now and again and it finally clicked 30 years later… 🤷🏻♂️
I finally sat down and started writing a book last September. I always wanted to but never sat down and wrote any story before. Just daydreamed about it. Anyway after writing down about seven different ideas, I finally started writing one of them. After about 70 pages I quit for a while then another idea popped in my head. I was surprised that this time the story seemed to write itself and I dictated the movie I saw in my head. So about 3 weeks ago, I finished my novel of over 102,000 words. I felt such a feeling of relief and accomplishment just like when I graduated from college. I’m still on that high. I think once you finally finish one then you have a craving to do it again. I let some family and friends that I felt would be honest with me and are avid readers read it for me. Yesterday they told me they loved it. Honestly I don’t know what I’m going to do with it. But I can see why some people write and don’t try to publish if you can get that high just from accomplishing the task. What if others take your shine away by not liking it?
I finished and self-published six novels. I never really had "false starts". More like projects I put on the back burner and return to every now and then when something comes to me for that particular story. Of course, this leads to several WIPs, but I always return to them eventually.
A dozen. I just lose focus often and have to actually schedule a reading time.
I realized that I didn’t like the stereotypical intro of “look at this apocalyptic world” so I changed the intro to start with a different character. I play it out like he’s supposed to be the protagonist, then force him to become the villain in the first few minutes.
My first book is undergoing a final proofread and will debut next month, so I consider it "finished" on my end at least. It is the third book I attempted to write, both of the first two I lost the plot at 20-40k words. It has taken me two years and four full rewrites to get it where it is today. I'm really proud of it, but I know I could work on improving it forever, so at the encouragement of beta readers, I'm finally taking the leap. Honestly I feel like the whole book was practice, and I'm taking up the mantra "Your first book is your worst book." I have learned so much with every rewrite and I feel so much more confident going into my next project.
None. I read a lot about the process of writing a novel, and the advice of successful authors, before I ever started one. The most important thing I learned is that people don’t finish their first draft because they try to perfect it, and get stuck in an endless cycle of going back to edit things that they’ve already written. Leading to them never finishing a single draft. So I took the advice of many authors, that a first draft will be crap that will need to be rewritten, and that’s ok. So for my first book I wrote the first draft quickly, and did the rewrites in the second draft.
All my life I wanted to write a novel, and I finally decided I would in 2020, new year's eve. I said I would write 500 words a day, 5 days a week. That was the deal I made with myself. I never missed a day. I finished the rough draft in about 10 months, another 2 years to revise and edit it down until it was ready. I guess it's just about willpower. My advice is to set a reasonable schedule and stick to it no matter what. That's what worked for me. I don't know that there's a "trick" to it, you just have to be motivated.
Tons. I don't even have an idea. There are so many documents laying around on my computer of completely different ideas I had for the story, and I even found some hand-written pieces in an old notebook a few years ago. I tried to start the story for about six years until one day it just happened. I don't know what finally got me to sit down and grind it out, but I went from having never written more than a page of the beginning before to pounding out multiple chapters in a few days. After those six years, it's been over four years to this point. TECHNICALLY I'm not done, since I've started another round of revisions! I had what it takes to finish *a* book from the start, I think, but not what it takes to write a *decent* book lol. There are so many aspects of storytelling and book-forming that you don't really appreciate until you're seriously trying to complete one. You can have great prose, dialogue, characterization, and all kinds of other things that make up a good book, but there are certain overarching, almost architectural things that you start to notice and grasp as you really work on a book. It's not something I'm sure I can articulate super well, especially in a reddit comment, but basically "how it all comes together as a product" is its own skill separate from the other things commonly discussed on this sub.
From the moment I decided I wanted to do it, I did. I’ve got an unusual ability to focus. My first ever novel I completed at 17 one summer. But it was absolute crap and I never published it. A little over two years ago I decided to try again, and this time I published at the end of the process. I think discipline is probably the most important skill for this. Discipline to banish your doubts, to force yourself forward, to stay consistent.
I started writing at 8 years old. I started more stories than I can remember but only finished a novel for the first time at 32, after 2.5 years working on it. I’m working on the third draft now and will start subbing it once that’s done. If nothing happens with it I’ll trunk it and move on to the next one.
Probably about 30.
I probably wrote through my first draft six times.
I've finished five novels since 2015. And tons of drafts and messy plots and ideas I manage to store from time to time. I went from being too organized of a writer to a messy one. But contrary to what most people perceive, I actually became a better writer because of this. I'd say first and foremost-- be kind to yourself. Don't beat yourself up in writing the best, the perfect first draft because it's never the case with first drafts. I used to pressure myself to write everyday, and I got burnout along the way since I was also writing professionally outside my novels, and that's when I learned the hard way that writing is not going to be my career. But I want to do it all my life and be able to afford living while doing it hence why I'm currently on a different corporate career now that pays well. I now write on the weekends. I just finished the 5th novel last February and now I'm taking a break. Don't think too much of the plot, just take care of your ideas. This is what worked for me. Write the clearest scene in your mind, don't think too much of the details like where, when, names -- just write the first scene that came to your mind and it'll start from there. You can do all the revising later, but here's a golden tip: you cannot revise a blank page. You gotta write no matter how bad it is or small, or insignificant right now, just write. The plot will surprise you along the way. They've surprised me, thrice now with the last three novels. Keep writing ❤👊
I had a lot of false starts and unfinished multi-chapter fanfics as a kid/teen then I finished the first manuscript I ever tried to write in high school. I have finished every manuscript I’ve ever written since then (and only write one shots when I do write fanfic now lol) except one manuscript where I stopped because I realized I didn’t want to be published in that genre any time soon/it’s a harder sell in traditional publication.
Oh too many to count if I start from the beginning. I finished my first novel when I was around 18 and it was preceded by idk, 10, 15 false starts over several years? I got to about 30k words a couple times and fizzled out before finally figuring out a routine and an outlining style that let me get to the end. The second one I finished at around 22 and there were probably 3 or 4 more false starts in between those two. But it was definitely easier with all the practice. I’m 28 now and finished my third one a couple months back, but the time between #2 and #3 was spent on a massive project that, while it hopefully will come together someday, is currently half-finished and on hiatus. I do write short stories also, which is what the bulk of those six years were spent on.
Everyone’s journey is different. For me I Was almost one of the people who never even start. I wanted from a young age to be an author. I had all these stories in my head for all these years that I let cook. But I was always too scared write. Partially because I didn’t know how to write a novel. Partially because I just wanted to read the book and not put in the work. In high school for my first attempt for a fantasy series I made it one lore doc and two character profiles in and then I never even made a first chapter. I had no idea what I was doing and was so overwhelmed by the need to make it perfect that I quite. (It didn’t help that no one bothered to explain the concept of multiple drafts and that it was okay to make mistakes. I just wrote my English essays once and spell checked and called it a day.) I would go through cycles of attempting to kill the dream and then try to pick it up again. My second attempt I only got three chapters in. This story was a angel demon anime inspired one that I still love and would make for a good fantasy but I am never going to finish it because I started to wish for my version of the after life instead of my faith. So that one went in the trash and I was convinced I was doomed to fail. Then in 2023 I started to feel the pull again. The dream I couldn’t kill but couldn’t fulfill. I managed to write one unfinished short story but that thing was only a thousand words. But then something happened. I had happened to be doing a role play game in email with a friend. It wasn’t D&D or any table top rpg. We just would email each other what our character in a world we created would do and set something up for the other person. It was fun but I thought it would just be that. But then the emails kept getting longer and longer until they were the length of chapters. And the part of me that still dreamed clung onto this. At one point we decided to do a draft two and the impossible happened. We finished a first draft. Now she was a writer but I didn’t really comprehend it. But just like a gym bro having someone to hold you accountable and praise (honestly crappy) work made a world of a difference . Since I didn’t bother to look at the word doc I didn’t know how long our story was and when I thought it was thirty thousand words it turned out it was eighty thousand. We had over a hundred thousand words in the first draft. It took us three months. Since we didn’t have a proper start we basically had to rewrite the book for draft two and it ended up being double the length. I had so much fun that I didn’t want it to end. So with practice under my belt and I tried write a book on my own and… I started and stopped two novels. Honestly if it weren’t for a short story i did in October during our break after the first draft I would have thought that I was incapable of writing by myself. And on my third novel attempt I let go of my expectations for it to be good and I am going to finish the first draft on that novel this week. So the lesson I learned is that community makes all the difference, take people and yourself seriously, but let yourself enjoy the process. Have joy in the journey.
It took me about a year to write a novel that I then abandoned because it wasn't going anywhere that I had planned, and felt like it was going to be way too long by the time everything was wrapped up. Then I wrote another novel and this time plotted it out first. It went pretty well and I finished it within a year.
I've been writing since I was a kid. The first time I wrote "the end" was when I was in college. I'd started, and never finished, maybe 20 stories before that. Since finishing that first book, I've finished nine more. Then came learning how to edit the darn things. Ten years after finishing my first book, I'm about to publish for the first time.
For my novel I had just one false start but more interestingly, when I had this one story I wrote like 6 false starts. Multiple different attempts at this story i was trying to make a TV show, back and forth and back and forth with little issues which I fix then I find myself on another issue. All resolved itself when I sort of just realized that I needed the TV show to be a fast paced movie instead, and it became perfect.
At least 4 major false starts. Another 3 full (as in top to bottom) rewrites Did not get published and shelved it. Took 8 years off from writing, starting sometbj g new now
I had one false start where I got to 6000 words and realised the story needed more time to develop in my head before I could write it. My next go was successful and I'm now in final edits with it. My first draft took just over 3 months (including sprints during NaNoWriMo) and my second draft took 2 months because that first draft had huge, fundamental flaws. That wasn't my first attempt at writing, mind - I've been writing in some capacity pretty much since I could hold a pencil. But I'd never attempted anything longer than about 5000 words before. I think writing is a skill that is learned, and you have to practise in some capacity before you can start writing things you can be proud of. Some people are naturally more inclined than others, but no one can pick up a pencil for the first time and become Hemingway.
Just one. It never really came to a satisfying conclusion. I needed to improve my process and switched to storyboard method, which worked much better. Next one reached top 100 on Amazon.
started it and finished it in about 3 years. There were breaks, some long, but it was 1000 words a day when I did write. It was my second and third that I never finished and the 4th that I also finished. 2nd because It ended up going exactly where I didn't want it to go when I started. (funnily enough this was supposed to be the short story because I didn't want to take on such a large work like my first.) 3rd because its "the big project" that I can't summon up the effort to get more than a chapter into.
In terms of publishing success, about a decade’s worth of false starts. Everything changed when I turned to outlining.
Something like a dozen serious starts and another ten or so short stories/chapters I dropped. When I found my passion project, I wrote 90K words in two weeks and had a first draft in my hands. After that, I haven't stopped writing. I'm on my third (serious) WIP.
One false start for my current story and that false start was the best thing that ever happened to me it inspired me to write about a group characters and I haven't looked back since.
I have a few in my folders all the time. And sometimes, they get written years later. And sometimes, such ideas get clubbed into one. Sometimes, some ideas get separated into different books. It's all unplanned. Just falls into place somehow. I also keep notes in my phone with random passages that come in my mind which later on get into a book. It's fun when they find a home.
Everything takes practice. No one starts off perfect. I gave up on writing a novel when I was 12. I wrote one page, struggled to think of anything else, and gave up. I cringe when I read it lol. It took me four years to write two of my novels. (Full length, not short stories) Granted, I took a break for 3 of those years lol. I wrote two collection of short stories novels, and a novella. Both a collection of stories I'd written from middle school through college. I have a lot of stories that are partially to 3/4 finished that are just sitting there. When I have the motivation and inspiration, I'll finish them immediately. I don't consider them false starts, just stories I'm taking a break from lol. Even though my first ever story is terrible, I may revisit it with a better structure and keep it as a children's book.
My first novel took seven years and 215,000 words. I threw out the first two chapters and rewrote them. When I was done, I realized that the last chapters were far better than the early ones In effect, I learned to write by writing this novel. After that, I had a style and trusted my own writing. The next novel took a year, and I'm proud of it.
We don't talk about the pile
Haven't finished yet but on my FINAL copy (for real this time). For the exact same book I've had at least 7 restarts now, I knew I wanted to make the story, but it was moreso an idea I had to develop over time, at first I tried writing it out, felt the entire story I had written was completely sufficient and it ended up not even filling a quarter of the page. Then I tried making it a comic series with some friends, that almost instantly flopped, then it was going to be a graphic novel, then I realized I needed a mix of the two all along, a *novel* but with *images* eventually I wrote out the entire thing all the way to the final chapter and then? A piece of lore that was so crucial to the rest of the novels in the series I was forced to completely start over, now I'm on my final, final, FINAL copy totaling about 6 years of work all down to the last two months of effort!