The Hard Part's Over... Right?!?

I’d like to say that writing the first draft of my first novel was easy, but it wasn’t.

Despite all the advice I’ve been given, read about, and heard throughout the years, I second guessed myself throughout the entire process. I sat for hours re-reading what I wrote and continued to tell myself it was crap and no one would be interested in it. The problem was, if I stopped writing and thought about it too much, I would instinctively beat myself down and nothing would get written.
One thing I found really helpful was putting on a set of headphones, blasting a playlist, and grinding down to get on with it. When it comes to music choices, Spotify puts all one’s preferences together into mixes, so there are all sorts of fun playlists anyone can pop on and listen to that may help whenever an author needs a “mood” for writing a specific type of scene. YouTube is also very handy for having and creating writing playlists. You might find all different kinds of music you had no idea you liked.
I’ll admit, I, like so many authors, am a mix of plotter and pantser, who tend to have several notebooks strewn about their desks, chock full of ideas, notes, character profiles, and other snippets of information. I had made notes of the characters, the plot, key scenes, and the rough outline of the plot. It made the process so much easier when I sat down with these notes and began actually writing.
This also helps in cases where you find yourself suffering from writer's block. When this happens, all you have to do is go back to that notebook full of notes and read through. Doing this is great for getting back into the groove. Even a basic timeline of the book and where it is going is often enough to get the brain back on track if it’s stuck.

Read the entire article in the October 2021 issue of InD'Tale magazine.

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