A little while ago, I put out an idea for my blog! :)) Some of y’all could submit any writing questions that you wanted to hear me answer or any conundrums you’d been encountering in your own novel, and I would make a post trying to answer these questions!
Lola Mae had a few questions about writing. One of them was: When writing a novel you hope to publish, how do you not let the pressure surrounding that goal—expectations, worry about if people will like it, etc.—impact the act of writing and falling in love with your story?
Ah, yes. Expectations and publication. The thing that (alas!) almost every one of us is going to have to deal with at some point. First off, thank you Lola for submitting writing questions for this!! I hope that you find some of what I say here helpful! And secondly, this is a good question and one that I have had to ask myself many times over the course of my writing journey.
Publication, I know, can both be an absolute dream and also feel utterly daunting. Although when I first started writing, I actually didn’t aim to publish. I knew little to nothing about the publishing process — indie or trad — and all I knew was that I had this story inside me that I wanted to tell.
It was after publishing my first novel though, that all these voices of doubt started to set in. Those voices of doubt all asking the same questions that you mentioned in your question — is this good enough, really? Is anyone going to like this? What if this is too cliche? Maybe somebody’s not going to like this! Remember, you have to make this good. People are going to read this, after all!!!
The thing is, I’ve found that none of these questions or thoughts ever help me write a better scene.
These questions aren’t going to tell you that maybe this character needs little bit more fleshing out, or that this revelation would be more impactful if it was in Chapter Thirteen instead of Chapter Ten, or that this dialogue could use just a bit more strengthening.
No, instead, these are the questions that tend to drive me bonkers.
What I do when I’m writing instead, is to ask myself curious questions. Questions that help me pry into the story. Instead of asking myself if anyone will like what I’m writing, I try asking myself questions about things that I’ve noticed. Why did those two side characters suddenly stop talking when MC appeared? What lies behind that forbidden door that the MC’s uncle explicitly tell MC not to go through? Why is that girl trying to hide her necklace? (I’m just making up random questions as an example here.)
I sit with the story and try to listen — really listen — for its little whispers that I know will eventually guide me to the next scene.
But the point is asking curious questions that bring you back to the story instead of asking the vague, anxious, worrisome ones that will only distract you from the real work.
Of course, this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t care about improving our writing. Revision and learning are all important parts of the writing process. But there is a difference between carefully refining your story to tell it the best that you can and worrying over the opinions of future readers who don’t exist yet.
The truth is, you can’t control if everyone’s going to like your book or not. No matter how carefully you write, how much you meticulously craft your characters and plot, how many times you revise, there is always going to be someone who won’t connect with it.
And that is perfectly okay!
Not everyone loves the same things. I might love a book because of its characters and themes, and someone else might not connect with it at all. Neither one is wrong. Every reader is different, and each one brings his or her own experiences and thoughts to the page.
Another thing that has helped me is having a secret project, one that I don’t plan to publish. I’ll sometimes work on it in between the drafts of another (usually more fleshed out) project, and that project will be one that is just for me. Full of the things that I love and I find interesting. It’s a place where I can fiddle around, make messes, and have fun.
It doesn’t even have to be a full novel. It could be a writing exercise. A description about rain. A little page in your journal about why you love sunsets.
These little things help ground me. They remind me why I love writing, and they also remind me of the joy of fiddling with words and creating just for fun. It’s part of why I think writing exercises can be just as important as full on novels.
Something else you could do might be to create a list of everything you love about your story. I did this with Island Keepers and while it doesn’t always solve my problems, it helps me return to the reason I’m writing this story and all the little things about it that excite me.
Mine looked something like this (all XXX’s are redacted information because spoilers):
- Sunflight the griffon! She’s such a rascal, so chaotic, and yet so loyal to (MC). The fact that she loves muffins.
- MC’s character voice. I connect with her so much, and I love all of her occasional dry remarks.
- The names. (I had a lot of names that I loved in Island Keepers).
- The bond between the three siblings.
- Mount Aeries and the Legend of (XXX)
- The XXX Curse
You could try doing the same thing too!
At the end of the day, I think writing is almost a bit like wandering through a forest. Publication might be the place we’re aiming to end up, but it cannot be the only thing we’re focusing on. If we spend the whole journey worrying whether anyone’s going to like what we’ve written, we might end up missing all the wonderful parts that make the journey what it is. We might miss the interesting flowers, the strange trees, the beaten off-the-road paths.
As Ursula K. Le Guin said in The Left Hand of Darkness, “It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.”
Till next time, and here’s your weekly (or whenever I post) reminder to do what you love!
Wishing y’all a fantastic week!
-Isabelle
P.S. And if any of you guys have any questions you’d like to hear me answer, I’d really love to hear them!! I’d also love to make this a running thing on this blog, so feel free to put them in the comments of this post! And if any of you have your own thoughts on any writing questions submitted, feel free to share those as well! :))
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