The Second Place a Novelist Screws Up

In my last blog, I talked about how even really good ideas have challenges attached to them.  I'm going to talk about that a little more today.

One time, I heard someone's idea for a novel.  It was an erotica parody and the idea itself was pretty entertaining, but the second I heard it, I knew the person who had that idea could not do it justice.  In order to write a successful parody, you can't just make fun of the genre.  That's not good enough.  If someone is familiar enough with a genre to get all the jabs, then it means your audience likes the genre.  You can't just slam it through a wall.  At the end of a successful parody, you finish with a love letter to the genre.  To pull it off, you have to love that genre.  I was betting that the guy with that hilarious idea for an erotic parody had absolutely no love for erotica, and thus would be unable to pull off the necessary second half.  Start with the jokes; finish with a kiss.

The disaster happens when the author sits down and starts writing.  They finish to the end of their introductory plot arch and then they're left scratching their head.  What are they supposed to do next?  They don't know.  They think they're blocked, and they are.  They aren't writing.

Writers get blocked when there's a disconnect between their expectations and their ability.

Sometimes it's because a writer notices a gap in popular storytelling, and they wonder why no one has written a story that follows the missed pattern.  They think that because they spotted it, they're the one to write it, but finding storytelling ideas this way does not account for a particular author's skills.  It's like applying for any job that's available, not your dream job.  You can plod away at it, but it might be like climbing a mountain with toothpicks.  It's going to take forever and it won't be very much fun. 

Other times, it's because an unpracticed novelist expects that because they have been writing adorable little projects for years that the skills they learned writing those can easily be transferred to a larger project.  They're going to find out that that isn't necessarily the case.  I always say that a novel is 60,000 words, but you can easily make more than 60,000 mistakes.  That's because it takes skill to manage multiple plot lines, character arches, ongoing themes, foreshadowing, and provide consistent writing throughout a piece.  Sometimes people who only write tiny pieces do not have a regular voice they write with.  They read back their writing and oops!  They're discouraged because when they read someone else's book, it looked so effortless; they thought they could easily write a novel too.

Those are just two ways that our expectations can murder us.  We want to be smart.  We want others to think we're smart.  We want to be creative about what we write about and how we write it.  Yet that is not coming through on the page.

We need to let go of our expectations.  Forget about planning a manuscript you think will be profitable.  Instead, write something from your heart, and don't worry about writing well.  For your first book, just try to make it to 40,000 words.  In your next manuscript, focus on getting to 60,000.  You'll be so much smarter about how to craft a plot after your first two attempts.

And I know no one wants to 'practice' writing.  Everyone dreams of getting it right the first time and being a huge success.  That's something else you're going to have to let go of.  No one writes their best stuff at the beginning of their career.  If you analyze why you're writing and it's because you want a ton of attention, fame, and money... maybe find something else to do.