What I Wish I'd Known

 What I wished I'd known before my books were published:

Nothing. 

Not a damned thing. I'm glad I didn't know what a weird and wonderful and stressful trip being published would be. I'm glad I didn't know about awards and nominations before hand. I'm grateful that I had no idea that business relationships could or would twist into something unrecognizable and actively harmful. I'm also grateful that I came to my first several books filled with aspiration and faith and freedom. Not that I was writing whatever I wanted - I recognized the need to comprehend craft and story structure and to honor to contract made with the reader. But because I lived in beginner's mind, I came to writing without any preconceived thoughts or ideas about what it HAD TO BE in order to make a sale or hit a list. When you're out there in the pre-pubbed trenches, you can't imagine, nor should you, the slings and arrows that come with being published. I suspect that when you're newly published, you can't imagine the problems that come with being in demand or with scrambling to make a living from writing. The truism is that we don't get to run away from pain. We only get to pick our pain. Which means every stage of writing life has its issues and its rewards.

This is a profession. It's a job. Like any other job, you'll have good days and bad days and a lot of boring, grindy days in between. That's why it's so vital for the process of writing itself to be the reward. The doing has to be the thing that brings you to the keyboard everyday. If you live only for the results of your writing, you'll have a lot of hard days in before hitting The End. Control what you can - spoiler alert: the only thing you control is you and your writing. Accept that all of life is a learning process and the day you're done with lessons and possible struggle, it will be because you slid into your grave. There's a grace to not knowing everything and a particular sweetness to retaining the capacity to still be surprised. 

So no. I don't have regrets about what I didn't know. I'm grateful for what has been and for what might yet come to be. Right now, that's enough.

 

Dive In, Pen First

When you start writing your first book you’re filled with excitement and pure joy. So it’s no wonder your brain isn’t thinking ahead to marketing, career strategy, and long term goals. When you first start, don’t stop until you’re done. 

But once you’re done…take a breath.

This week we’re writing about things we wish we’d known before we wrote our first books. Personally, I don’t think you need to know anything before you try your hand at penning your first novel or novella. I believe going into it without expectations or rules is a precious thing because you’ll only ever have that experience once. 

If you have no previous education, you have no rules to follow. Going into writing a book without knowing the phrases three act structure and character arc give you the freedom to explore your story without any hinderances to your imagination. And it’s fun.

Once you have a completed book the real world comes crashing in with decisions. You’ll need to edit it, how and/or who do you have to help you comes into play, and then you must decide which publishing route you want to take with it. And no matter which path you choose, there’s a LOT to learn. 

It’s true, the story may not work. You may end up with a meandering mess or characters who fall flat. But, you’ll have had the best time writing it because your imagination had free reign. If you’re thinking about writing a book, do it. You already have the capability and you don’t need to spend thousands of dollars going to conferences or taking classes. You’ll be starting with your innate ability of storytelling that you’ve formed from all of the books you’ve read up to this point. 

I will add one caveat to this whole idea of starting to write without any prior knowledge, don’t write it long hand in a notebook. Type it out. You’ll thank yourself when the next step doesn’t include converting written text to electronic format.

Oh The Expectations I Wish I'd Known

 This Week's Topic: What Do I Wish I'd Known Before I Wrote My First Book?

Let's see, the first book I wrote (and finished) was a shifter PNR. It was fun to write, but it got no love from agents or editors -- and, in hindsight, I'm glad they rejected me. What I'd written didn't meet romance-reader expectations. What I'd written could maybe be called romantic fantasy, but not fantasy romance. Here are four things I'd wish I'd known:

1. The OTP meeting needs to happen in the first chapter 
• I'd waited until ch 5, building on the Jaws-esq dunuh dunuh dunuh approach (closer, closer, closer, Meet Cute)
2. They need to spend 99% of their time on-page together
• I'd structured it in the way I like my personal romances--with time spent apart, not living in each other's back pockets.
3. A short synopsis is not my enemy; it is a tool to ensure my plot is structured and complete. 
4.  That there was such a thing as readers' genre expectations. 
• hahaha, zomg, {face palm} I can't believe I didn't know that

It's been almost two decades since I started writing as a career, so uh, safe to say, I've learned some things along the way. 

Wishes for Younger Writer Me

 If I remember rightly, this topic might have been my suggestion, and I think I suggested it because at the time I imagined it would be easy to drop a top ten list and waltz away.

You'll notice there's no top ten list.

I've spent the week contemplating what I'd tell younger writer me if I had the chance. It was stuff like 'being published doesn't equal success'. 'Being published does not mean you have it made.' 'Polish up your armor, you're going to need it.' It's all super depressing stuff and the key piece that finally made me pull up short on a "Hey. Wait a minute." was the fact that not a single thing I could think of to say to younger writer me is actionable. 

Maybe I've grown jaded, but cryptic advice without concrete, actionable goals/outcomes aren't worth the breath to utter them. Or the heartbeats spent listening to them. 

So I've had a rethink. What actionable things do I wish I'd known before I'd been published. Okay. I suppose the first piece is that I wish I'd known that agents could do as much harm as good - but the kicker is that there's no way (assuming you've done due diligence around knowing who you're hiring) to know until you're in the situation. The actionable piece to that is to enter into that business relationship with eyes wide open and with the full knowledge that a day may come when one or the other of you may have to sever the relationship.  I wish I'd known to have a plan for both best case AND worst case scenarios regarding options clauses. That means I wish I'd come up with a plan for what I'd do with book three whether my publisher wanted the book or not. I didn't. So I flailed. In hindsight, I perceive how devastating flailing is for me. A writer needs a plan and this writer in particular needs a plan, even if that plan is nothing more than drafting a novel just for the fun of seeing how the characters spark and ignite.

I notice that most of what I wish I could communicate isn't actually about writing, it's about the business thereof. I believed I had a reasonable grounding in the business of publishing because of RWA - and maybe I did, but in no way was I adequately prepared to face some of the challenges that came with being published. It is true that driven by those challenges I took a couple of crash business courses aimed at entrepreneurs. They helped - it was there that I learned to plan for both the best and worst case scenarios. I think if I could only give younger writer me a single piece of actionable advice, it would be to take those business classes before getting published. The ride might still have been bumpy, but it might have involved slightly less flailing. Or maybe different flailing.

That's the thing about changing the past. You never know what kind of snowball effect it'll have on the future. 

Huh.

You know what? I take it all back. If I could tell younger writer me anything, it simply be "Write. Never give up on it. Never give up on you."

What I'm Glad I Didn't Know When I Decided to Become a Writer

This week at the SFF Seven we're discussing what we wish we'd known when we decided we wanted to write.

It's an interesting question, and a fraught one. I first decided that being a writer would be the perfect career for me back in 1993. That's almost 30 years ago, so it isn't easy to think back to that younger self. At the time, I was completing a Ph.D. in neurophysiology and confronting the bald truth that I didn't really want to be a research scientist. I sat myself down, meditated, and asked the question: if I took away all the if's and's and but's, what would be the ideal life.

No one was more surprised than I was to hear that the answer was to be a writer. But I also knew it was a true answer and that, if I wanted to be happy, I had to do whatever it took to make that come true.

So, I cut bait on my Ph.D., got a Masters and a job as an editor/writer to start building my chops. I took night classes from visiting writers. I began writing, something, anything.

What do I wish I'd known then? It's tempting to say I wish I'd known how long it would take before I truly began earning a living as an author. My conception then of how long it would take was absolutely the largest lacunae of ignorance in my hopeful moonscape. I thought it would be a couple of years, not a couple of decades. I totally thought I'd hit it big. I thought my steady progression of successes, for which I am grateful, make no mistake, would have a steeper upward trendline. 

And yet... I'm actually glad the younger me didn't know how protracted that effort would be, how studded with setbacks and pitfalls. Had I known, would I still have done it?

I don't know.

Sometimes I think our ignorance at the outset of an ambitious enterprise works in our favor. Ignorance truly can be bliss, especially when it allows hope to flourish, hope that carries us through the difficult times. 

Maybe what I really wish I'd known back when I made that decision is that it was the right one. But then, I knew that anyway. 

Wish I'd Always Known: I'm a Plotter

 What, oh what, do I wish I'd known back when I'd started writing?

Plot. First.
Every. Time.
Damnitall.

I wish I'd known myself well enough to know that I *have* to craft the skeletal plot before jumping into writing. So, so, so many drafts of stories that could've been great if I'd known where the story was headed before settling in and writing now languish in the "never to be shown to the public" folder. Hell, even my first two published books would've been leaps and bounds better if I'd plotted them out first. Going back and fixing the broken tales is soul-crushing and...infuriating. By the time edits come due, I'm wedded to scenes that really ought to be cut and end up doing a full rewrite just to salvage the kernel of the concept and the shells of the characters. 

At this point, I know better. Alas, that doesn't mean I didn't just waste four months pantsing a story then trunking it because it fell apart. That lil' winter tragedy is confirmation that I gotta do the logical work upfront so the whimsy and wtfery can blossom while writing the actual story. True way back when I was a baby writer, true to this day.

Dear Author, Please Stop

Dear Author,

You wrote the thing! Good for you! Now, you're going to fling that thing into the bright sky and see if it will fly.

I want you to stop.

No, no. By all means, hit publish or accept that contract - whatever is going to get your book out into the world, do it. What I want to do is tell you what I wish someone had told me.

Stop being a people pleaser if you are one.

Remember why you started writing in the first place. Whether it was to entertain yourself, or keep yourself company, or to right a wrong done in another story - no matter the reason, at some point, writing became your own little act of rebellion. Maybe sedition. It's a portion of yourself that refuses to bend to the dictates of your society and your culture. It's the part of you that you reserve for you. Keep that firmly in mind and in your heart.

Once you hit publish, your story may grow wings. Or it may crash and burn. Or it may flounder in obscurity. You have no control over how your thing is received. But if you're a people pleaser, you'll spend too much time and energy obsessing over why someone liked it/didn't like it/failed to notice it. And that will warp your relationship with your stories. Eventually, it will warp your relationship with yourself.

So stop being a people pleaser. Only one person needs to love your stories. You. If you do, then and only then is it possible for anyone else to love them, too. It isn't a guarantee that everything you produce will meet with unconditional love. It likely won't. What is guaranteed is that if you allow people pleasing to drive your writing, no one will be happy. Least of all you.

Love,
Me

PS. Debut year? WTH? Every single book you release is a debut. It's all new. It's all fun. It's all scary and overwhelming and guaranteed something will go sideways because of all the moving parts. But if you keep writing, you have infinite chances to roll out the perfect debut. Even if it's of your 67th book.