So I’m writing a book. For real this time. I feel like I’ve been trying to write a book for years but just couldn’t bring myself to commit to anything.
I mean, there was, of course, the depression and creative burnout standing in my way, but even I think six years of not working on a book is a long time.
I’m trying now. Really trying. Since April-ish of this year, I’ve been working on my book, and so far, I have just over 35,000 words to show for my trouble. That’s 35k more than I’ve written in a really, really long time.
So What’s This Book About?
This book is a fantasy story set in a completely original world I originally developed for a Dungeons & Dragons campaign I’m running. But even before that, part of the plot actually originated as something I developed for a fan-fiction I was writing a few years ago.
It follows the story of a non-binary person named Philippa who will one day be sovereign of the nation Wyndell. However, shortly after they are announced as crown royal, they’re framed for murder and have to find a way to clear their name.
I don’t want to give too much more away, partially for protective reasons but also because I want people to be surprised by the twists and turns throughout the story.
The First 35k
The first 35,000 words of my novel, strangely enough, all fit into Part 1 of the story. It ended up being an even ten chapters (though that, of course, may change in rewrites).
I did a lot of experimenting with this. The story utilizes a wide variety of perspectives, so it was fun for me to start challenging myself and writing from new characters I hadn’t imagined as Point of View characters before.
I’ll also admit that this first part is the one I have the clearest vision of. In fact, it’s the beginning and the end I have the strongest grasp on, but the middle is a little muddier. I’m getting nervous about moving into the next part of the story because I’m worried about losing steam since I don’t 100% know what is going to get me to the ending I envision.
Something else I need to keep in mind is that I have a strong vision for this world and the characters of my story, but I don’t think that’s coming through in this first part well enough. For example, I certainly didn’t spend enough time worldbuilding or establishing character appearances well enough, so those are all things I’m already thinking about for the rewrite.
Challenges and Lessons
So far, the main challenge I’ve been running into is just continuing with it. It’s getting easier and easier to write the more often I do it, but there are still days and weeks where I don’t feel like writing or life is just hectic and in my way. I don’t have a set writing schedule yet, though I do try to write in the evenings after work. However, I’m still interested in trying to get myself on a good, consistent writing schedule.
Additionally, one of the challenges I’ve been facing is just letting the writing be as it is right now so I can move on to the next thing. For example, I sometimes get frustrated by scenes or want to rewrite certain things because it’s missing something or needs something more, but now’s not the time for that. I have to constantly remind myself to keep going and just get this first draft done and on the page.
One big example of this is that I recently decided to implement an overarching omniscient narrator who goes into the heads of all kinds of different characters, allowing for multiple storylines that all fit together. However, I haven’t perfected the voice of that narrator or how, exactly, she fits into the general prose. I’m trying not to let that stop me from continuing and am instead reading books who utilize a similar narrator and writing little test pieces to try and get a better handle on that.
There are two main lessons I’ve learned through this first 35k.
First is that the writing is never as bad as you think it is when you first write it. Sometimes I’ll finish a chapter thinking, “Oh, this is so bad. I’m glad I got it written, but boy it’s gonna be a huge rewrite.” But then I come back and reread it, and there are usually things I like about or that are strong about it that are probably going to stay in rewrites.
Second is that there is a kind of euphoria with reaching your writing goals. I never knew how powerful it was. But when I sit down and reach my daily goal of just 200 words, I can’t help but feel extremely proud of myself that I got that done all on my own. And more often than not, those 200-word goals get smashed, and I end up writing way more than I imagined!
Thoughts on Software
So I’ve been pretty intense about software for this project. A lot of my stuff (such as this blog post) is written in Google Docs, so naturally, I thought about just writing it in Google Docs, but there were a few reasons I thought about not doing that.
First, Google is a massive company, and I’ve been struggling with my relationship with big companies like Google. Ultimately I decided if I could start moving into software or programs by smaller creators who won’t sell my information or use it for advertising, I was going to do that.
Second, I’m currently living in rural Pennsylvania, and sometimes my connection to the Internet is spotty. What if I went to my grandmother’s (who doesn’t have the internet at all) and wanted to get some writing done while sleeping over? I couldn’t do that with something like Google Docs.
Third, I am INTENSELY paranoid about losing all of my work on this project. Even though Google Docs is all in the cloud, what if some horrible DDoS attacks happened and wiped out my work? I wanted something I could easily save in multiple places so that if something did happen to one of them, I’d have it backed up elsewhere.
Before anyone says anything: I know these are very paranoid concerns, but I have anxiety, okay?
Fourth, I wanted something flexible where I would be able to take notes, outline things, create character profiles, and actually write the project all in one place instead of having everything scattered across a few different platforms.
So I was toying with a few different programs, namely Novlr and Scrivener.
My Thoughts on Novlr
There were a lot of things I liked about Novlr, but there were also some things I didn’t like about it.
Things I Liked
- You can set word goals and keep track of all types of analytics like words per day, writing streaks, and so on. Also, if you set a daily word goal, Novlr will pop up encouraging messages as you reach your goals and go above and beyond them.
- They have a dark mode. This may seem ornamental, but I use Dark Mode for literally everything so I was very pleased they had one.
- You could set up the program to automatically backup to another place like Google Drive or Dropbox.
- The interface is very simple and clean. You don’t get distracted by toolbars, settings, and all that other stuff.
- The app saves each version that you write, so if you ever want to go back to a previous version of something, you can absolutely do that.
Things I Didn’t Like
- It’s a subscription service, so you need to pay a monthly fee to use it. I get the model, but in general, I dislike software I need to pay for repeatedly. I’d rather pay one flat fee and move on with my life so I don’t have to worry about, “What if I fall on hard times and can’t afford the fee?” Then I just don’t get to write for that month, I guess.
- The entire thing is all in-browser. It doesn’t have a dedicated app either on desktop or mobile. I dunno why this bothered me as much as it did because if you are logged in, you can still access the site even if you’re offline. Even so, I really wished it was its own dedicated program.
- Although there’s a section where you can keep notes and such, there’s no way to set up character profiles or templates.
- This is a little bit petty, but they offered me 25% off the yearly plan for life if I signed up within a week. I agreed to this, but it told me that my yearly bill would be $90 instead of $100… which very clearly isn’t 25%.
My Thoughts on Scrivener
In the end, Scrivener had a lot of features I liked even if it lacked a few minor things Novlr had. I’ve been using it fully since the end of June, and I’m really happy with it so far.
Things I Like
- It’s a one-time payment of $50 for life after a two-week free trial. Best of all, the free trial counts for days you ACTUALLY use the software, not since you download it.
- You can create templates and separate notes from the draft of your novel using folders, subfolders, and so on.
- You can track your target goals for word counts—for the entire book AND for the session you’re currently writing for.
- It’s incredibly flexible. You can tag different chapters or files with things like “Scene” or “To-Do” or “First Draft”. You can display different files at the same time, i.e. the first draft of Chapter 1 and the rewrite of Chapter 1 at the same time.
- It can automatically export your manuscript in true manuscript style.
- I can set it to automatically sync a save file into another folder; I have it syncing into my Dropbox.
- I can use my license on additional computers, so I have it installed on my laptop as well.
Things I Don’t Like
- There’s no dark mode. I do a lot of writing at night, so this is really hard on my eyes, especially after working my usual full-time hours, too.
- I’m on Windows, so I’m using Scrivener 1, not Scrivener 3. This isn’t a HUGE deal for me since I don’t know what Scrivener 3 does exactly; also, my software will automatically update to Scrivener 3 once it’s available.
- There are no encouraging messages as you reach your word goals, and it doesn’t track if you’re on a writing streak.
There’s a lot more that I like about Scrivener, but that’s my quick overview. If you’ve been struggling with finding a good writing software and want something flexible and relatively affordable, then Scrivener is the way to go.
That’s all I have to say about the first 35k. I still have a long way to go until this thing is exactly what I want it to be, but I’m feeling good about my progress so far. After all, 35k isn’t anything to sneeze at; I’m closer to being done now than I’ve ever been before!