Failed Writer's Journey: How Do You Finish a Novel

So I finished the revisions of Who is Sarah Smith.

It is the fifth novel I have completed well enough to feel comfortable sending out in the last five years. There have been others that I never got to that point with and shelved and some that I got part way into and decided I couldn’t make them readable. Obviously, I was wrong about readability of the ones I sent out, or at least salability — it does say Failed Writer on the door, after all. But Smith has some interest from a small publisher, which is encouraging, and hopefully means I have improved. And since this is the Time of Resolutions, and a lot of people resolve to finish a book, and since I have nothing else to discuss, I thought I might lay out what worked for me.

Outline. I spend years never finishing novels and I suspect that is because I only half-heartedly, at best, planned out the book. I would have a vague idea of the characters and a couple of plot beats and then fail to connect anything. Once figured out that I needed a real plan, it gave me the space to really write. Since I didn’t spend time thinking, as I was writing, of what should happen next I could focus on the scenes. This does not mean the outline was a straight-jacket. Far from it. But the changes I introduced came easier, felt like I was fixing an issue rather than groping my way through the dark. An outline gives you the light to see the path, and the light to see when you need to change the path.

Lean on structure, but don’t be afraid to deviate. The novel follows a pretty standard three-act structure. That, again, is a child of planing. The three-act is pretty standard well understood process that generally gives you the rising tension that most stories utilize. But we have rules so that we understand why we are breaking them. The book has a longer third act than normal, but it works given the shape of the story. What is important, in my opinion, is the voice of the author, that the story is carried along by the actions of characters we are interested in (not necessarily like), and that some jeopardy or possibility of change is present, usually in an escalating fashion. Do that, and you probably have a readable story.

Join a writing group. The caveat here is that it has to be a good one. You need one with people who will tell you, in whatever fashion they are comfortable doing so, that your book is crap and you should be ashamed of having written it. The power of a good group is that you have people who both want to help you write the book you want to write and are willing to hold you accountable for when you fall short of those expectations. No one improves if they aren’t helped to understand where they need improvement. Now, this does not mean that you want a group of assholes. Far from it. Assholes are not good at helping you understand where you need to improve. You want people who want you to succeed, not just to hear themselves talk. The Ubergroup is the one I am in, but there are plenty.

So there you have it — what worked for me. It might not work for you, but if you have had trouble finishing with your existing plans, maybe this is an alternative you can try. I wont say its easy because its not. Writing a novel takes a lot of time, effort, and mental work. But its also not the hardest thing you will ever do, and it does not require genius. Lord knows, I am the furthest thing from a genius. And, as noted, I am a failed writer. But I think if you want to, you can find the way forward that works for you and produce something you would like others to read.

Weekly Word Count

I have no idea, honestly. Between the holidays and an insane work schedule (I was on vacation but two massive projects I worked on went live, so I needed to be around) I just put my head down and pushed through the revisions/additions. The novel ended up at just over 67 thousand words. Novel length, but a short novel. Given that this is a political/techno thriller, that probably works, but we will see.

(As a reminder, the pitch is:

WHO IS SARAH SMITH? When an elder millennial programmer finally gets her big career break as the only woman working on a woman’s health app, she discovers the company is selling user’s menstrual data to law enforcement in anti-abortion states. They warn her that if she whistleblows, they will fire and doxx her. She has to choose between her own safety and that of all women living in red states. A darkly funny, high-tech thriller in the vein of “She Said” and “Proof”.)

If the editor likes it or likes it enough to want revisions, we will go from there. If not, we will try another project. Writing is fun even when I do it so poorly no one wants to read the results. Just because I am a failure does not mean I do not get something out of the process. And, of it does get picked up by the press, I will let you know.

Have a great weekend, everyone.