3 Myths About Writing a Novel

It is said so often people joke about it..."I'm just going to quit my job and write a novel."  And with the changes in publishing, the rise of the e-book and the increasing validity of self-publishing pretty much anyone can write, and publish their work.  This is amazing...but just because you can do it doesn't mean it will be easy...so let's debunk the top 3 myths about writing your first novel:

Myth 1: I have a great story in my head all I need is the time to write it down

You may have a great story in your head.  But writing a novel is a lot more than that.  It is the dedication to write every day, to re-write and delete.  It is going through the process of editing and formatting and designing.  A great story does not a great novel make...so if you have a great story, start writing, but that is only step 1 in the process.

Myth 2: Writing is easy

Anyone who has tried to write a novel knows this is not true.  Even if writing is easy, writing a novel is not.  Even when the content flows easily and your story is engaging it is still work.  It still requires discipline and thoughtfulness.  You need to create characters who come alive on the pages, who your readers invest in.  You need to avoid the types of mistakes that disconnect a reader form the story...mistakes about time and place for example.  You need to consider who you are writing for...this will inform the types of words you use or references you make.

Myth 3: I can do everything myself...I don't need an designer, proofreader, publisher

You are right you can.  But that doesn't mean you should.  This is where your friends and colleagues can help you...you don't need to spend thousands for a professionally designed cover but you should talk to the guy you get coffee with sometimes you designs websites for a living and see if he can help you.  You don't need a proofreader, but you should ask your friend who always remembers which "there" to use if she would read it over and mark it up for you.  You don't need a publisher, but you will need to learn about formatting for the different platforms you can self-publish on and you will need to think about how you will market and promote your book once it is done.

Writing a novel isn't as glamorous as it sounds...but it is rewarding and it is doable.  Just make sure you think the whole process through...that way your final book will be something you are proud of.

So where do you start?  Wherever you want...write a character sketch, start at the beginning, start at the end, draw out a timeline or create a family tree.  And then do something every day. 

Facing Failure: When the Play Dough Container Won't Open

Yesterday my daughter "failed" to be able to take off the cover to the play dough container.  In some ways it is hard to call this a failure because she is two and those containers are tough.  But it is a failure none the less.  On a small scale for sure, but she got frustrated, didn't want her brothers help and finally abandoned the Play Dough all together and did something else.  It seemed to me almost like a microcosm of what happens on a larger scale all the time.  We try something, the result is not what we like, or expect and we abandon it for something else.  And we give it a "nasty" word.

You failed to get the promotion.  You didn't succeed in getting to spend more time with your family.

You failed at your marriage.  You didn't succeed in leaving someone who never made you happy.

We celebrate our successes and hide our failures and this takes so much work.  And is counter productive.  In a recent study on failure conducted by ES Communications they asked respondents about their experiences with failure. 

The first two things that jumped out at me was that when asked if failure was a private thing 2/3 of respondents said no.  Individuals perceive that their failures will be public knowledge.  This fact along plays a large role in how people feel about failure.  Since we feel it will become public we are forced not just to think about the failure but also how we will handle how other people in our life will handle the failure.

 The second area of interest was around the areas of our lives where people feel they experience failure.  At the top of that list is friendships.  Followed by work and then failure with our significant other/spouse.  When we think about these results the first thing that comes to mind is that our self-reporting is flawed.  We feel the worst about our interpersonal failures and so we report on them as being more prevalent then they are.

 

Failure isn't easy.  From the moment we realize we can't open the Play Dough container ourselves to our inability to make up with a friend to feeling like we can't buy someone the gift we want because we don't have the money.  All feed our desire to succeed and our need to be praised and recognized for something good.  What if we could turn it all around.  Change our thinking about what it means to fail...could it become something positive?

It's not an Autobiography...

So The Day the Rain Came was published about a week ago.  I wrote it almost 20 years ago.  It is the real voice of a 15 year old girl...but it is fiction.   It is not my story.

The main character is dear to my heart...like an old friend I haven't seen in a while but who I would like to find on Facebook.  I put her through a lot...took a lot from her...and left her with less then she started with.  She has my voice, but she is not me.

The thing that has been interesting to me is that I have this feeling that if anyone I know reads it...and that in and of itself is a big "if"...I think they will think it is based on my life.  And suddenly that makes me feel very exposed.  Because Ashlyn has struggled through a lot and some of the things she has had to face aren't comfortable topics for people.  Perhaps the upside is maybe it will help continue conversations about sexual abuse and rape, about violence in teen relationships, about how the culture of our society prefers to blame the victim still.

So I wrote a book...

When I was 15 I wrote my first novel and after years of people reading it and thinking it was going to get published I gave up on it.  Until it somehow made its way to another publisher who decided it was worth putting up.  So 19 years after it was written, my book, The Day the Rain Came is now available for purchase on Amazon and through their Kindle store.  You can check it out here:  http://amzn.to/1dcYlOw.

I am done

I found an essay that I wrote in high school last week.  It was the final essay I wrote before I left for college.  And that was the title.  I am done.

Why is it that my whole life I have felt this way.  Like even when something good happens I am unable to enjoy it or see the good in it.  I am perpetually waiting for the other shoe to drop.  Trading one set of worries for another.

I started this blog when I was lost.  Then I found myself and my voice.  But like everything I couldn't just be in that moment.  I had to rush through it, find the bad, move on to the next thing.

I want to crawl under my desk and hide.  Let tears silently fall down my face. Keep my mouth closed for so long my tongue forgets how to form words. Punish myself for never being able to enjoy the good.  Perhaps this is my punishment.

Dreams and Regret

A friend on Facebook posted this as their status the other day: "A Man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams".

It got me thinking. How long has it been since I had dreams? I guess my last once ended in 1999. So 13 years. I have become so accustom to living with regret I had stopped even registering it...had just assumed everyone else was like me...resigned. I don't know if it makes me old. But it makes me sad. That for some reason, for many different reasons, I have given up the things I dreamed of and replaced them with the things I need to do.

I didn't take risks when I could. Didn't put myself first. And so instead of the excitement of dreams, I live with the nausea of regret. But I live...and I guess that is something.

2011: A Year in Facebook Posts

1/3: misses, misses, misses you

1/3: is on her way home...so happy

1/10: found it harder then normal to leave this morning

1/10: never thought she would be one of those people who runs for a train. but here we are.

1/10: Is testing a theory about failure...

1/13: is very happy to be homeward bound

1/19: knows I couldn't do this without you. thank you

1/20: just cryin it out...it may be a long night

1/24: now owns a car that tells the temperature. I didn't need to know it was negative 10 this morning though.

1/24: is thinking about home

1/26: stuck on train 20 minutes outside Portland...frustrated and wishing I was still in bed

1/26: new aerobic exercise program: train running

1/29: Ferber method=fail

1/31: will do whatever it takes

2/4: just saw a woman in the train station in shiny black leather pants, a extra large white fur hat and a decorative cane. I assumed she was Russian until she said goodbye to her dad. am both entertained and frightened.

2/4: remembers why she hates public transportation. it seems as though running even close to on time more then once a week is too much to ask.

2/4: misses her freedom car, her 15 minute drive to work and her Marlboro Reds

2/5: loves weekends with her boys

2/7: you're better then the best

2/8: we did it!!! What a year...

2/9: I see "perps" and "unsubs" everywhere have I A) seen too much Law & Order/Criminal Minds B)regained my Northeast cynicism or C) gone without sleep for so long I have finally lost it?
2/14: misses the sound of your voice

2/14: so happy to be home with her boys

2/23: Nobody's clapping...

2/28: long drive...would like to give a shout to my car for holding its own on the snowy icy roads

2/28: misses her boys

2/28: is so glad to be home

3/2: would like to thank everyone in her life who inspires her everyday to dream big

3/5: fingers crossed

3/9: is tired of the concept of "trying"

3/13: in Charlotte. how can one airpore be filled with so many people expessing no urgency. also why is there no McDonalds?

3/13: in Miami. not as great as it sounds.

3/14: is thinking about the awakening

3/14: why is there no soda in this hotel?

3/14: found diet coke. happiest I've been all day.

3/15: thinking about home...and community banking

3/15: en route to airport. spent a total of 5 minutes outside today. it was a nice 5 min though.

3/15: imagining how good my phillie cheese steak is going to be for dinner.

3/15: us air just made me gate check my bag. will it make it to Portland? the odds are set at 50%. you want the over or the under?

3/15: just landed in Philly. the pilot actually said "now that I got your attention with my landing". maybe I should drive the rest of the way home

3/15: is on her last leg home. can't wait to see her boys

3/15: made it to Portland. been waiting for my bag for way way to long. booooo us air.

3/20: cat got sprayed by a skunk. house now smells like a skunk...anyone had any luck dealing with this type of problem? Or should i start looking for a new house?

3/21: really misses her boys today

3/23: really misses NOLA today...

3/27: great Maple Sunday with the family!

4/4: Going through bug withdrawl

4/11:misses nola, Marlboros, her boys and the sense that she is doing something worthwhile

4/13: eat your ceral with a fork and do your homework in the dark

5/4: try to leave a light on when I'm gone

5/11: why does the parking garage smell like burned broccoli?

5/11: listening to the Celtics lose while driving home = bad idea

6/19: Happy Fathers Day to the love of my life, Huey Sheffler. Jack and I would be lost without you

6/22: Wonders what the guy driving the truck with the bumper sticker "have you hugged your assault rifle today" would say to the guy in the Prius with the "I'd rather be stomping imperialism" bumper sticker?

6/27: was really wishing I was driving my SUV as I passed the guy in the Prius with the bumper sticker "draft SUV owners first"...

6/27: loves being able to smell the ocean

7/14: Nixon- you are the worst pet I have ever had. You spent your first days with us throwing up on the floor. You cried the whole drive from NOLA to Maine. You pooped all over our new house and because of you we have to replace a carpet in one of our bedrooms. Your tale is broken and your eyes look in two different directions. But I love you and I would really like you to come home now.

7/15: Thinking of going to the Clam Festivale for the first time since the mid-90's...any recommendations on parking spots out of the fray?

8/2: misses you

8/3: just had one of those moments...

8/24: feels like she has been away for a long time

9/20: misses her boys

10/6: Sad to hear about Steve Jobs...while I have never been a huge fan of Apple products he gave a speech in 2005 that changed my life: http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html

10/18: What happens at the interesection of ramping up and winding down?

10/30: Does anyone know if there an alternative to cmp as a power company in southern Maine? This no power thing is unacceptable. The fact that you can't even get a real person when you call is maybe the worst customer experience I have ever encountered.

10/31: Power back on (thanks to nana and gramps for letting the bug - and us sleep in a warm house last night). Cozy in my office. Am researching whole house generators :)

11/9: what is it about deadlines that feel so definitive...

11/9: Has no idea how she will sleep tonight

11/24: Thankful for good friends, wonderful family, a warm fire, tasty food and for Huey. Happy Thanksgiving everyone

12/22: It's been two and a half years since I met Huey Sheffler, two years since we adopted our cat Jackcat, 18 months since we bought our house, 15 months since our son Jack was born, 6 weeks since our daughter Sophia was born, 24 hours since our dog Nola came home and 5 hours since we said "I Do" in front of our children and a judge. We're married and couldn't be happier!

12/25: Merry Christmas to all. So thankful for Nana and Grandpa, uncle Edward, the kids and for Huey. Always for Huey. Hope your day was as full of warmth and laughter and food as ours was.