OLD POST ALERT! This is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date. Please click on Start Here on the menu bar above to find links to my most useful articles, videos and podcast. Thanks and happy writing! – Joanna Penn
It's my tenth fiction book, the 3rd in the London Psychic series which completes the trilogy. There are also 7 books in the ARKANE series, 4 novels and 3 novellas.
So these days, I finally feel like I have a bit of a clue about what I'm doing 🙂 so here's a reflection on lessons learned from writing 10 fiction books.
(1) Writing more books will improve your writing
That might sound obvious, but the number of authors obsessing over book one seems to suggest otherwise! It's much better to get the first book finished and edited, then write the next one and the next one, learning on the way.
You will improve faster by writing more books than if you spend years honing one manuscript. You'll get quicker feedback if you hire a pro editor and then self-publish.
That makes me super happy because clearly, I've been working on my craft and applying those lessons in each book.
It's also a natural development from the process of writing more books. If you read Deviance and then go back to Stone of Fire, you will notice the difference, for sure. Every time I have an edit on one of my books, I learn what I'm doing wrong and I try not to repeat those mistakes in the next manuscript.
But I'm OK with that. As the startup industry says, if you're not embarrassed by what you did last year, you're not moving fast enough. Or something like that 🙂
(2) Writing a novella is a lot of fun and readers love them
I have really enjoyed doing the ‘Day' novellas for the ARKANE series and certainly intend to do more. They also fit my travel addiction 🙂 The titles might give it away: One Day in Budapest, Day of the Vikings (which opens with a murder in Orkney), One Day in New York.
Yes, these books all take place over one day and the bad guys get a kicking by sundown. Super fun! Definitely more novellas to come in my future.
(3) Understand the cycles of writing to avoid guilt
There's a lot of advice out there (including on this site) but we all have to understand our own creative cycles. I don't write book related words every day. Sure, I write every day but it might involve blogging, journalling or other things. For my fiction and non-fiction books, I'm more of a binge writer.
Then I move into an editing phase and the calendar is bare.
But being an author is more than just writing a lot of words.
It's about thinking and letting ideas compost, it's about research trips, it's also about turning those words into a book – the editing and redrafting process – and then, if you're an indie, going through the publishing and marketing process too.
By understanding the cycles of creating a book, you can avoid writer's guilt about not writing every day. (Please remind me of this when I get antsy about not creating enough new words!)
(4) Getting into flow and getting the first draft out fast
If I take too long between writing sessions, I lose where I am. I need to clear the decks and immerse myself for a period of time. Then emerge from the writing cave and do the rest of the work.
I've pretty much nailed my process for writing first draft fiction in a flow state now. It's taken many years!
I get away from my desk and go either to a cafe or a library. I plug in my earphones and listen to Rain and Thunderstorms on repeat. I write for a couple of hours, until I have finished a scene or reached 1500 – 2000 words.
During that time, it can feel like a fugue state. I don't usually remember it. I don't really see the words on the page as my own.
It's quite weird.
But then writers are definitely weird! (Don't worry, you're at home here!)
Deviance was hard as the series is much more intricately plotted than the ARKANE books, but after I used Shawn Coyne's The Story Grid to work out plot issues, I wrote the last 50k words in a month. Happy times 🙂
Image: Flickr Creative Commons After the rain by Oleg Shpyrko
(5) The bug has bitten deep
I love love love love writing fiction.
It's definitely hard work and I have a theory on why. There's evidence that every decision we make every day saps our willpower and our energy. That's why books like The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg recommend having a routine for breakfast and clothes etc so you can save your decision making for difficult things. That's why Barack Obama wears the same type of suit every day.
Fiction writers have to make loads and loads of decisions for their characters which saps our own decision making ability and leaves us exhausted after writing. (Or is this just my justification for chocolate?!)
Anyway, it is hard work but I love it. It stretches and challenges me. I can go deep into things I'm fascinated with, like the tattoo and body modification community in Deviance, and Jewish Kabbalah mysticism in Gates of Hell. I can travel for research.
I can create something new in the world and say, “I made this!.”
Even better, I can help readers escape their lives for a time, like the authors who help me escape into exciting worlds. I am addicted to thrillers and now I get to write them. Happy dance 🙂
I also get paid for doing it. So I am one happy little writer bunny today!
THANK YOU to all of you who have bought my books or tried out my fiction. If you'd like to give it a go, you can get a free novella, Day of the Vikings, here.
You can also get Deviance in ebook or print format today, currently on sale at US$2.99 or equivalent. It will go up to $4.99 in a week or so.
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1 2 Next »Joanna,
Inspirational as ever! :) It makes me chuckle to hear you say you now have "a bit of a clue" about what you're doing!
It's fantastic to see how your success has really snowballed and you've been able to craft this amazing lifestyle which gets better and more fulfilling with every book you release. Truly something for us all to aspire to! So hope to be in your shoes as such - being able to write to live and live to write - in the next 4 years (I've set the goal of by the time Im 30... but sooner if poss!!).
I inde published my first book a year ago today. Its been a cause for reflection! I just published my second fiction book and before that my adult colouring book. So amazing to be able to see the product of all that hard work - which of course all began with stumbling on your website 2 years ago and thinking "hey... this is doable!"
Yesterday my colouring book made more money than a day at my dayjob... plus it's ranking at 382 out of all 28,000,000+ books on Amazon, and is now a top 25 bestseller in self help books. I find it astounding... and so addictive and inspirational seeing the success possible because it makes me want to work for more!
Seeing you blazing the trail makes me know it's possible to sustain long term with the right hard work. Bring on the next 10 books for you - can't wait to see where you are even in just another year's time! - and the next 3 for me haha (my ambitions are sadly more modest at the moment due to dayjob constraints... but all good things take time!)
Hope you're enjoying the colouring book by the way :)
Take care,
Meg
Congrats on the colouring book, Meg :) It is lovely and it's amazing how the trend has really taken off. I saw a whole shelf full of them in Foyles today with people checking out all the designs. Colouring is definitely self-help so maybe that's where you should focus and you'll be zooming past me in no time!
Thank you! :D I'm seriously considering it! Rather ill at the moment and struggling to concentrate enough to write, but drawing is an almost unconscious activity I can leave my hand to do by itself it seems. Therapy for me to create and for others to colour! It's great seeing so many people getting into creative stuff through colouring. :) I doubt I'll be passing you anytime soon, but am aiming high for sure! ;)
get well soon Meg and see you at the top!
Thank you for sharing your lessons. I especially relate to the binge writing - that's what I do too, and get annoyed at all the advice saying to write every day.... where do they fit in their editing?
I think some every day writers write in the morning and edit in the afternoon - each to their own :)
Novellas are it for me next I hope. My ideas just seem to reach into the back and beyond. I guess I will have serialise them or something.
My first two novel drafts took four years and was nearly 300,000 words - verbosity.
Am just about to finish the first draft of book 3 in six months and at about 100.000 words.
So am improving with time.
Thanks for the posts Joanna.
Maybe try outlining Shane :) My novellas are around 27k and my novels are 60 - 75k.
Most romance novels are around 50k, thrillers at 70k and fantasy at 100k. Genre word count matters too in terms of reader expectations.
Historical and family sagas are also long, but in terms of finishing something, novellas really are brilliant :)
Five great lessons, thanks Joanna. I really need to work on Lesson 4! My first novel took 12 years to write and the next one has taken 5 already and I'm not even a third of the way through. Started back into it earlier this year but haven't touched it for at least two months now. I'll get there one day.
It's absolutely brilliant if writing is just a hobby for you, Kathy. I'm more focused on the career aspects so the faster production is important, but as long as you're having fun, it doesn't matter how long it takes!
Not a hobby :) which is exactly why I need to work on Lesson 4. That's my focus for this year so really trying to put into practise all the tips and hints you so generously provide.
Hi Joanna my name is Summer. I am amazed at your points of view...Im so happy I came across your website. Im a beginner and can use any pointers you give. Thanks
Congrats on launching Deviance today!
... and thank you for your inspirational words about the flow and cycle of writing. Sometimes we can forget that while the editing doesn't give us that immediate sense of achievement that can be found in the counted words of a writing day, it is just as much of an accomplishment!
and while writing words is really important, the editing part can take just as long in order to make something that someone else wants to read!
Joanna, this is a great post! I wrote stuff for ages without finishing (or editing!) anything... I finally did NaNoWriMo in order to motivate myself to actually finish a project. Right now, I'm working on finishing and editing as much stuff as possible so I can get loads of practice. Thanks for writing this post! It's nice to know that I can improve as I write more books. :)
Super :) and well done for editing and finishing - that's the bit that turns writers into authors!
Congratulations on your latest release.
So true. Writing is a creative business, and if we work at it, we improve. I write flash fiction pieces (when a story won't leave me alone), novellas, serials, and novels.
I've also written magazine articles, and have even had requests to ghost write.
It's a crazy business with ups and downs, but I can't imagine doing anything else at this point in my life.
Exactly - and every 'job' has its ups and downs, but this fulfilling for the long term :)
I've written two non-fiction works in the healthcare field, a few textbook chapters, have been podcasting on healthcare topics for 10 years and now preparing to self-publish my first novel in mid-September. You post here has verified that my binge-writing and editing process is the right way to go (for me, at least). The next challenge is to leverage my loyal podcasting audience into a loyal fiction audience for a paranormal medical fiction novel. Thanks for your posts, newsletters and webinars!
Congratulations on the release of your latest novel, Deviance!
I've been reading your blog for a while now though have never commented. I recently finished reading Pentecost, and enjoyed it. I look forward to reading the entire series and also your other works of fiction.
I've been writing most of my life but always feared showing what I wrote to anyone, last year I decided to get series if being an author was to ever become a career of mine (a dream since I was a kid), so I finished a novel, got it edited, hired a cover designer, and published my debut novel, Lethal Disposal, in May 2015. Now the hard work of selling it has begun.
I completely agree with your first point, writing more books will improve your writing. I wrote (and discarded) six manuscripts over the past fifteen years. I learnt a lot but I realised that I probably would have learnt even more if I had fine tuned them, published them and got a second opinion instead of hiding in the 'closet'. Thankfully that stage is done and dusted. I'm now almost finished writing my second novel to be published by Christmas, have a third already brewing in the back of my mind, and have another idea for a series of novellas. Now if only I could find an extra few hours in the day or learnt to type at a thousand words per hour!
Congratulations on getting over your fear and getting your book out there! You've made it over a massive hurdle and now the fun starts :)
Check out the arc of the indie author which might help point the way: http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2014/07/08/arc-of-the-indie-author/
Thanks Joanna! I've read this one a couple of times. I've also bought and read your How to Market a Book. Now I have to reread it with a notepad and pen beside me and start taking action.
Thanks Kasia, enjoy the book!
Nice truthful piece. As usual, thanks for your insights. I especially liked the stuff about flow and the first draft. Right now I am in the first draft of my third novel this year. The problem is that they have all jammed up at around 50,000 words. Got any suggestions?
I'd recommend Shawn Coyne's book, The Story Grid. It will help you replot so you can get over that pain :)