If You’re Going To Write A Novel, Be Patient!

The writing process is not as glamorous as I once pictured it. It can be lonely, especially for an extrovert. It’s isolating, frustrating, emotional, and all-encompassing. On the flip side, it can be exhilarating, mesmerizing, and rewarding. It demands so much focus that you have no choice except to be fully present. 

Writing this book was a huge lesson in patience as it’s been about five years in the making. From an idea conceived in the middle of the night to multiple post-it notes, the sporadic jotting down of ideas, and finally full chapters with rewrites. (Then more rewrites, beta readers, and even more edits and rewrites!) Let’s just say it wasn’t finished as quickly as desired. 

Writing has always been a healthy outlet for me and therapeutic during difficult times. Eight years ago, when I found my world turned upside down by divorce, I turned to the familiarity of my notebook and pen. Physically jotting ideas down on paper and post-its was how this book began. Eventually, I got with the twenty-first century and started entering chapter ideas into my iPhone’s “Notes” app. From there, it progressed to my MacBook, where I would often stay up typing into the wee hours of the morning whenever an inspired idea hit me. 

As a newly single woman, I encountered various people and characters who gave me the material which sparked my imagination for this story. What began as a dark tale about the despair within toxic relationships morphed into a lighter, humorous story about a suburban love affair far from your average romantic entanglement. 

My first draft of one hundred pages was thrown out. It simply didn’t feel like the story that was meant to be shared. After much consideration, I kept the main characters while changing the plot’s direction. This took many months of laying out note cards and keeping track of dates, events, characters, and background until I could finally piece the new book together. 

There were times I wanted to give up. Many people told me it was a long shot, and that few authors ever make money or secure a publishing deal. I chose to keep going because it was a personal goal to finish writing an entire novel. I believed in the book and felt it was a story that needed to be told. My thought process has always been, even if it reached only a few readers, I’d consider it a success. My greater hope is that it will help others who may be going through something similar in their lives.

Back to the process… with my novel finished and off to the editor, I breathed a sigh of relief. I knew I could relax a bit, although the arduous task of rewrites and querying publishers would be next. My editor suggested I enjoy the break and take some time off from thinking about the process. My pause was short-lived. Do you know what I did during the “break” while my first baby was off in edits-land?

I fired up my MacBook Pro and started writing the sequel.