Keep Going:
It is especially important to keep going, do not let
yourself be dissuaded. Your novel is going to be awesome when you are done.
Keeping Drafts:
Don’t forget to ensure that your work on the computer
is backed up and each draft you go through is kept in a folder with the name of
the working novel as it’s main name, it’s own individual number
or letter which makes it easier for you to find.
Kill your darlings:
If a character is not working, or can easily be replaced by another character, then it is time to get rid of them. We must be brutal at this stage, we may love this character and enjoy writing them, but if they serve no purpose, and don’t move the novel along, it’s time to get rid of them, and as mentioned previously, if a plot point, or scene is not working, get rid of it as well. Learn to cut out what doesn’t work (besides as mentioned before, you can save them to a separate document in case you need them later, or for something else).
Being kind to yourself:
When reading through what you have written in your
first draft, don’t be negative about your writing or ability, that was the
first draft, it’s supposed to be awful, you were just getting the bones down.
Now I know that it sounds like repetition, but the more you hear / read it, the
more you will be prone to believing it and actually feel good and be kind to
yourself about your writing.
Write what you KNOW:
It’s an old adage and for beginner writers complicated. The
way I look at this writing what you KNOW thing is this, I may not know how to
pick a lock, but if I research it, so that I can either do it, or explain it,
then I know about it right? If I read a lot of true crime and can recognise how
a crime scene looks then I can write a crime mystery, if I research the PI business
I can write about a P.I, I don’t always have to physically ‘KNOW’ something for
years and years, doing it does help (I don’t condone murder, theft, or kidnapping),
but research helps you KNOW stuff if you get what I mean.
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I do umpteen drafts before I’m finishing and, yes, kill my darlings, in the form of words and sentences and entire scenes. Recently I chopped a story down by nearly half and it was much better. It was rejected anyway, but I’m not planning to return to the orig8nsl.
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