Outtakes, Nola brunch, and Dear New Writers

Before I get to the subject line of this post, I wanted to let everyone know that the new Crescent City Brunch tickets are now available for sale to the public. So, if you want to see me plus two dozen other bestselling authors in New Orleans next year, go here to get your tickets.

Also, if you’re a BLOGGER who has previously reviewed the Night Huntress series and you want an eArc of the upcoming Outtakes From The Grave, please contact me at frostlight1 AT yahoo DOT com (obviously replace the AT with an @ and the DOT with a . in your email.) I only have 20 eArcs to give out, so I can’t guarantee that everyone who asks for one will get one, but I’d like to give everyone a chance to ask. Important Note: this is for bloggers/reviewers only, and if you haven’t read the first four books in the Night Huntress series, don’t request an Arc because Outtakes From The Grave won’t make any sense to you. For more information on Outtakes, go here. Readers, please don’t reply to this offer because I will hold another giveaway for you later, promise. However, this one is for pre-publication review purposes only, so that’s why it’s only for bloggers or review sites.

And now, to the subject line of my post. I get asked a lot about writing, my process, and publishing, and to cover those topics, I have a bunch of posts here. However, in the past few months, I’ve been getting a similar question from young writers, and I wanted to post a summary of my reply because it applies to writers of any age.

Here’s a paraphrase of the question: “I’m just starting a book and I want to know if what I’ve got so far is any good, so can you read it or recommend a critique group for me so someone else can give me an opinion?”

Now, before I get to my answer, let me preface it by saying there is no “one size fits all” approach to writing. If anyone tells you “You have to write THIS way or you’re doing it wrong!” politely thank them and then do whatever works for you. Some people must plot extensively to finish a book, complete with character boards and detailed outlines for every chapter. That is their “right” way. But some people don’t plot at all and they know very little about their characters when they start a book. That is their “right” way. Some people *raises hand* are a mix between the two, where they know some general plot points before they write and they have some idea about the characters, but most of the story comes to them during writing, not before writing. That’s my “right” way and other people’s right way. So, whatever your method is, it’s right if it works for you. That’s why I encourage people to take my advice below with a grain of salt because some writers, guaranteed, won’t fit this mold.

My answer: At this early stage in your novel, especially if this is the first novel you’re attempting to write, I wouldn’t recommend that ANYONE look at your book. Contrary to what some people think, it is very hard to finish a novel. Ideas are easy to come by, but taking one of those and sticking to it for the length of a coherent plot with believable characters is much easier said than done. So, first, I applaud you for starting your novel and being determined to finish it. This goes double if you’re in your teens. I didn’t start seriously writing until I turned 30, so all of you young writers are way ahead of where I was when I began to seriously attempt a book.

However, one thing I’ve found after writing over a dozen novels is that getting a critical opinion very early in the process such as before you’re even half done with a book) can sometimes kill your progress with your story. After all, you can fix all of your errors later, but right now, I want to encourage you to keep writing until you are finished with your story, or close to it. Also, if for some reason you don’t end up finishing this particular book, don’t get discouraged. I was over 60K words into a time-travel romance when I got the idea for Halfway To The Grave, so I stopped working on my other book and started writing about Cat and Bones instead. Needless to say, I’m glad that I did *wink*.

That’s why I would discourage you from looking for critical opinions at this point and instead encourage you to keep writing! Furthermore, you might change a lot of things in your book between now and when you finally finish, so don’t worry about spending a lot of time on polishing early chapters. They may or may not even make it into the final version of your story. Again, for reference, let me mention Halfway to the Grave. The beginning you read in the published version was actually Chapter Four in my original version, so I ended up deleting the first three chapters during one of my many revisions on the book. In fact, I end up cutting most of my beginnings after I write them, but until I’m done with the book, I usually don’t realize what is good enough to stay and what has to go. That’s why I say that getting critical opinions this early so that you can polish and edit chapters that might end up getting deleted later on can be a frustrating waste of time (and a good way to get discouraged about writing in general.)

So, in summary, don’t worry about fixing your book yet. Instead, have fun writing it. This is your chance to make a story exactly the way you’d want to read it (oh, if we only had that control in real life! Lol.) Experiment by trying different writing methods to see which results in the most productivity for you, such as plotting versus organic writing. There will be plenty of time later for polishing your story into the best version that it can be. Good luck to you, new writer, and most importantly, happy writing! :).