I don't remember what ignited the idea for my first novel. In fact, I don't even remember why I started writing a novel. I'd been blogging for years and I also penned my memoir, and I think I was looking to expand. And most important of all, I thought writing a novel would be a breeze.
My strong suit has never been coming up with original ideas, so I began my novel the same way I start all my manuscripts, with just a main character and a setting. That method can work, but not necessarily on one's first writing attempt. Thus, the novel started out dull, because I was still feeling around for a plot.
By the time I discovered the plot, I'd already written a lot of somnolent prose, but I was proud of the fact that I'd even made it that far. It wasn't until the inciting incident that I finally took off.
MISTAKE NUMBER ONE: Not editing myself.
I'm not saying the novel was great, but I could have at least found a reader or two if the beginning didn't read like a slog. Nothing much happened. The main character traveled back to her grandmother's farmhouse and did a lot of reminiscing (yawn). Yes, those reminiscences set up a lot of what was to come, but nothing had come yet! Why would anyone care unless they knew there would be a payoff? It's like watching a movie about someone's workplace and the first half hour is consumed with the main character rearranging items on her desk.
Once I finally completed the manuscript I should have gone back and rewrote the opening. I didn't. I thought, it'll be fine.
Which leads to:
MISTAKE NUMBER TWO: Being too attached to my words.
Sometimes I'll write a clever scene or a snippet of sizzling dialogue, and I'm so proud of myself! Look at me; I did that! Even if it doesn't exactly fit in the context of the story, I want to keep it. The first time I gritted my teeth and deleted a passage I really liked, my stomach was queasy. What if I never come up with anything that good again? I didn't realize that words are just words. Once they're deleted, they're forgotten; replaced by new words.
MISTAKE NUMBER THREE: Flashbacks.
While it's sometimes necessary to explain why a character acts the way she does and that her actions are driven by her past, this doesn't require pages and pages of flashbacks. I wrote so many flashback scenes in my second novel, they could have been a whole other book.
Write the current story. Long flashbacks take readers out of the scintillating story the writer is trying to tell.
And while I'm at it, this is also why I detest subplots. If I'm engrossed in a novel, really invested in the main character's arc, and I'm suddenly dumped into some supporting character's dilemma, I'm pissed off. I don't care about this person!
Any time a new writer asks how to add to their word count, the number one piece of advice they receive is, add a subplot. The truth is, if you can't write an entire novel without swerving off into unrelated territory, you don't have enough material for a novel. Your plot is too thin.
Both flashbacks and subplots can be done right, but that takes experience to master. With my third novel, I included what could be termed a subplot, but it still involved the main character. She led a double life; a working professional by day, a white collar criminal by night. Since the two didn't intersect, one of those could certainly be considered a subplot of sorts.
With the novel I'm writing now, I only have one or two flashbacks. I realized at one point that I'd never mentioned the main character's deceased father, except for the fact that he'd died when she was little. That came across as rather cold, so I included a brief passage about an experience they'd shared. It was all of one paragraph, and that was enough.
MISTAKE NUMBER FOUR: Too much filler.
Because I didn't know how to develop a story properly and I had a word count to fulfill, I wrote too much filler. Nobody told me, but I'm sure they would, that every scene needs to count. I may have deduced that after re-reading my first couple of novels. Some passages were just "there" for no discernible reason.
I don't mean every scene has to be jam-packed, but something about it needs to advance the story. Even a dialogue exchange must do that. Readers don't have the patience for a stream of consciousness.
A novel should be as long as it needs to be. That's an advantage of self-publishing. A literary agent won't even consider a 35,000-word manuscript or even a 50,000-word, but readers will, as long as it's a good story and well written.
I've made other mistakes as well, but these are pretty crucial ones. By my third novel, I managed to correct most of them; not all. I have to remind myself to avoid them every time I begin a new story. I know of no better way to improve other than to make dumb mistakes and learn from them.
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