Writing a Book (II)
Photo by Aaron Burden (Unsplash)
I thought I would be done with my thoughts about writing a book but I was not. When I published that article, tons of other thoughts just came flooding into my mind and I was a bit annoyed that they came this late but at the same time that other article was already a bit long so…
In the last article, I wrote about my experiences and the things I learnt while writing a book. This time I would like to write about struggles and challenges instead. Because writing a book is honestly a lot of fun but at the same time comes with tons of struggles and challenges, I did not realize when I first started to write novels so… here I go I guess.
1. Remembering
Before I started writing, I wrote a character profile for all my main characters. I even accidentally wrote a character profile for side characters who were supposed to be main characters, which did not work out. The character profiles made it easier to remember the personalities of each character and how they would behave and talk.
However, it was a bit challenging to tackle multiple characters at once in one passage because they all have done something and it is just hard to remember who said what. It was also hard to remember which character knows what and who doesn´t. Sometimes, I am writing a passage, which I need to change because I remembered that there is no way that character knows that. Just because I and the other characters know something does not automatically mean that the character in that passage knows that. It is just a lot to keep track of.
Sometimes it was also hard to remember if a character already said something or not. Let´s just say that I am glad that I did not write it on paper and can use the search function to find and change mistakes otherwise I do not think I would have finished the novels at all.
Another thing worth remembering is the messages and intentions. Sometimes there were times where I suddenly came back to my senses and realize that that character is not supposed to do that since it goes against its own personalities. So remembering ‘what sounds good is not always what is supposed to happen’ was a challenge.
Other times I also need to remember just because a side character is a side character does not mean that that character is an empty shell with no personality whatsoever. Even though a side character may not have a lot to do or say, doesn’t mean that they don’t show emotions or have thoughts on their minds. That is something I constantly need to keep in mind to make the side characters interesting.
Then comes something I am terrible at. Which tenses I am supposed to use. There were a few instances where I was writing in the present tense even though that passage is taking place in the past. Sometimes I just confuse myself, forcing me to reread everything to get my mind on the right track again.
2. Repetition
When I was writing my first novel, I felt like I am constantly repeating myself in that story. Each character is repeating something similar over and over again, which made the story feel a bit like ‘yeah, I already know it, so what.’ The repetition just serves as an unnecessary reminder. I am actively was repeating the same idea over again in different chapters. Not because that idea was important or anything but it was because I rephrased it a bit and thought that the rephrased sentence also needs to go into the book. Spoiler alert, that is a terrible idea and something I need to get out of my system, otherwise, it is not called writing a book, and it will be called repeating oneself.
Another thing I hate is that I constantly have to use the same word over and over again because that word does not have a suiting synonym. When I am writing, as already mentioned in one of my previous article, I like to have a thesaurus close by so I can look up synonyms and antonyms so the piece does not feel repetitive. However, some words just do not have an adequate synonym, which is annoying. Those words are usually very specific but that does not change the fact that I need to use that word repeatedly.
3. Deleting
Deleting passages is actually a good thing from time to time because there can be too much of a good thing. If I did not delete I would still be swimming in thousands upon thousands of words and drowning in all the unnecessary details. All in all, deleting is a good and necessary tool.
Nevertheless, sometimes some passages need to be deleted and I just don’t have the heart to delete them. That passage is either too good to delete or carry a sentimental value. Either way, I don’t want to delete it. I just have to close my eyes and make that deletion irreversible otherwise; I will be fishing through the trash. Normally then I would forget about what exactly I wrote but whenever I read over that paragraph where the passage used to be I will feel a bit queasy.
4. Writing a dialogue
When I first started writing novels, I always have to make choices every writer need to decide on. For example, which perspective does one want? First-person, second person, third person, etc… What is the character supposed to be like? Quirky, pessimistic, flirty, etc… The choice I had to make was ‘do I want in the past tense or the present tense.’ In other words, do I want my characters to have dialogues in the past or the present? If the characters are having the past the dialogues are not exactly word for word since it is a recount of that dialogue. However, if it were in the present cutting certain bits of dialogues will seems odd.
For my first novel, I decided that I wanted to write everything in the past tense from the first-person perspective because… I can. Honestly, I have no idea why but I just thought it was quite fitting. Anyway, I wrote it in the past tense so my main character is recalling everything that happened and remembering every dialogue. This inadvertently meant that the dialogues go straight to the point and is not constantly going back and forth.
For my second novel, I decided the opposite, since I wanted to try something new. Instead of past tense, I attempted the present tense. Still from the first-person perspective but it was quite a change nonetheless. While writing this novel I constantly needed to remind myself that it is not a script. Sometimes I found myself subconsciously writing a script instead of a novel. I had to cut the chitchat a bit to make it fit the novel format.
It was quite a huge shift from indirect to direct talking. It turned from he said she said to he says she says. That was something I needed to wrap my head around when I first started that second novel but after a while, I got used to the quotation marks and direct addressing so it was easier at the end. I still had to stop myself from writing a script but it turned out all right in my opinion.
5. Choices
I have touched upon this in the fourth point. The choices each writer needs to make when writing. Honestly, the choices are endless. As a writer, one is not bound to the rules of reality, which means anything is possible. However, one is still bound to the rules of writing, which means that one cannot suddenly switch from first to second person perspective just like that without an explanation. Technically, an author can do as they please but that would only confuse the reader, which is unwanted.
At first, I had a hard time choosing how I wanted to write. Which perspective I should use. Which tense I should focus on. Which tone that whole piece should have. Because I knew that when I choose one I had to stick to it for the rest of the book. For the seventy-five thousand words the same thing. And I just can´t help to wonder if I made the right decision or not.
There are advantages and disadvantages to every choice that needs to be made. For example, the first-person perspective seems more personal and makes the reader feels as if they were the ones in the narrator´s shoes but the narrator does not know everything which means neither will the reader. However, the third-person perspective makes the reader feel as if that the character is someone they can observe and can speculate about but the camera perspective does not allow the reader to know how a character feels when nobody mentions anything. Again, both have their distinct advantages and a writer can´t have both which is sometimes a shame in my opinion. Of course, the best decision is the one that suits the style of novel one wants to write but that is a choice as well.
Then comes the different combinations of choices and how they will fit together and all those choices added up is just a lot to consider especially for me who just wanted to have fun. In the end, I did make a choice with my novels but my mind still constantly wonders how different my novels could be if I tried a different combination or made a different choice and that is just driving me crazy sometimes.
6. Disappointment
Quality is more important than quantity in the case of writing a book but while writing my novels I can´t help to keep my eye on the word count and page number. There are few instances where I was disappointed that the passage I wrote was not as long as I wanted it to be. Then I fall short of the goal I set for myself and that is a whole other disappointment on its own.
Another disappointment can come when the passage one desperately wanted to write does not look that good on paper. I had several passages I was excited to write but I had to delete them because it just too many details, too irrelevant or too much repetition. Either way, it didn’t work out and that can be disappointing as well.
There are great ideas that need to throw out the window because not every idea can make it in the final cut, which at first can feel disappointing and bring one´s spirit down especially when one was excited to write that passage or proud of that passage but after a while the pain of each disappointment when one has to delete decreases significantly.
7. Logical order
Sometimes it is hard to get the right order. I wrote few passages that were a blend of two separate events and I just had no idea where to put those kinds of passages because it doesn’t fit anywhere. Before the first event is illogical because it would spoil both upcoming events. In between both events would be illogical because it would sum up one event and spoil the other. After both events also seems like an unwanted summary. I know I can just delete that passage or un-blend that passage but I just don’t want to.
Sometimes it feels like I am jumping from one event to the next. The flow is just missing making everything more confusing than it already is. Sometimes it also feels like by mentioning another aspect, I am breaking the flow of the passage but it is an important aspect worth mentioning. In these kinds of situations, I have no idea what to do.
8. Editing
I had to reread my novels a few times and correct the trivial mistakes that I found otherwise those novels would be not understandable at best. However, the one thing I dislike about editing is not the fact that I can get bored by reading about it even though I sometimes do get bored by reading the mundane chapters where nothing significant happens. I dislike editing for another reason.
The reason being that I already know what is going to happen and when reading these chapters I just think that chapter is missing that aspect but I completely forget that that aspect happens later. When reading and editing I found myself thinking to myself, why didn’t I mention that aspect here it would fit perfectly even though that aspect is already mentioned in another paragraph and it fits better there.
At the end of the whole writing and editing process, I even ended up hating those novels slightly. The mini-me in my brain was like ‘not again’. Because rereading the passage for the thousandth time can be exhausting because one is somewhat oblivious to one's mistakes at that point and annoying because it is the thousandth time one has done it.
9. Time
Writing a book is somewhat a long-term project. Not as in it will take literal years to finish it but it might feel like it. For someone like me who can´t do a project that lasts longer than a month, writing a book was certainly a challenge especially with all the issues already mentioned above.
I have no idea how long it took to write the first novel because the first draft was barely a book. It was more of a short story than anything. However, I do know exactly how long it took to write the second one. It lasted roughly two months to write so I could reach my seventy-five thousand words. (I know quantity does not mean quality but it was just a goal and that novel even exceeded that goal.)
In my opinion, that was a bit inefficient considering that an average human can type forty words per minute. That translates to 1875 minutes; I would have needed to spend on writing. A little more than a day when one would spend all thirty-two hours writing. However, now thinking about it I only wrote in the evenings for one or two hours. Wait, that would have still meant I would only need a month at most. All I am saying is that writing is very time consuming and it takes up a lot of the mind as well to get the story right.
10.
The beginning and the end
When I say I finished two novels, I technically need to correct myself because that is not true. I finished most of it but I don’t have an ending. The first book “ended” on a cliffhanger, which just means the sequel needs an ending and I am inadvertently just postponing the inevitable. The second one is mostly done but is still miss an ending.
It is not as if I don’t want the books to end, I want them to end. However, I just am not sure how I can write an ending and if I will be satisfied with that ending. Generally, I am rarely happy with my work, since sometimes it is barely presentable. As mentioned in the previous article, I just need to rip it away from my perfectionist self otherwise I will never get anything done.
I also had trouble deciding on how to start the book but let me just say, how to end it is so much worse. In my second novel, when I had the grand opportunity to end the book, I just ignored it and added two unnecessary chapters.
Maybe it also has something to do with the fact that I do not want to let go. I can still explore the world in my mind when I don’t end the book. Ending a book just feels as if I am shutting the door on the world I spent so much time creating. The ending is just a problem I am still working on.
Conclusion
All in all, I do not hate the idea of writing a book as much as I used to even with all the experience I have gained and all the issues that came with writing a book. Writing a book felt like a productive way to spend my time considering that I don’t spend it on something I essentially need to do like studying. Oops. Maybe writing will become a side hustle maybe it won´t. Truth is that I am only writing to make myself feel less bad about not studying I guess. I digress. Writing a book can be a lot but once I got used to writing, then everything seems a bit easier even when the issues are still bugging me a lot but I got used to them so they are fine.