Six Mistakes I Made When Writing My First Novel

 1. Not Plotting

When I first started writing my novel, I didn’t plot. I thought, “Plotting’s for chumps.” Yeah, that did not end well for me. I ended up having to rewrite my entire novel twice. Not Fun.

Even if you’re a Pantster, you need to know at least a little about where you’re going with you’re story. At least then you aren’t flying blind.

About halfway through my story, I realized my mistake, but it was two late. I spent the next year rewriting my book, and suffering.

 2. Not Planning Characters

Yet another BIG mistake I made. I changed my characters’ personalities about halfway through my novel, and during the beginning of my sequel. In order to make my characters’ personalities corollate with my second book, I had to rewrite my book. Beginning to see the pattern here?

It’s always good to have an idea of what you’re doing with a character, especially your Antagonist and Protagonist. Characters are the key ingredient for a good story, you can have a bad plot, bad writing, and everything else, but great characters are what make your story.

So take a little time to sit down and have dinner with your MC. Or your Villain. They make great dinner guests.

 3. Not Sharing My Ideas

I know, I know. Everyone says, “don’t share your ideas, you’ll get discouraged and lose focus, blah, blah, blah.” But, for me, sharing my ideas with my family helps me come up with better ideas. Its like having a whole team of creative people giving me insight and off-the-wall ideas.

Don’t share your ideas with everyone, sure, but find that one (or ten) person(s) you trust, and tell them your story. You’re bound to get some interesting ideas, if crazy. When you get stuck, go ask someone what to do next. Or don’t, and just vent all your frustrations in a three hour long rant, it’s your choice. Sorry to all writers’ friends and family. We writers are all crazy.

 4. Not Developing Characters

Along the lines of not planning characters, this is a biggie. Characters that don’t ever change or evolve are B.O.R.I.N.G. As are characters who are all clones of one another. Character development and character voice are hand in hand. Characters who aren’t unique can’t develop, because they have nothing to change into.

This is something I still struggle with, and, wait for it, I had to do a rewrite of my novel for this as well. I know, I’m pretty bad at this.

Giving your characters a voice is a hard thing to do, but place your mind in your character’s place, and you’re sure to get somewhere.

And here’s the key for unique characters: Just have fun. You can’t have fun characters if you’re not having fun yourself. Write quick little scenes with your characters to discover them, even if you’re not putting them in your Grand Masterpiece. Place your character in a candy shop, and explore what they’ll do. Or stick them in front of a crowd of people. Test who your characters are, and have fun with it. Don’t get stuck making boring characters, just because you yourself are bored. A bored writer is an unproductive writer, after all.

 5. Not Looking For Plot Holes

Here I go again, missing the big things.

After I finished my novel, and I was rereading it and plotting the other two books in my trilogy (since I learned my lesson about not plotting), I realized I had several major plot holes. And I mean, tear-a-hole-in-your-world kind of plot holes. So, I went back and added like twelve new chapters to fix my humongous mistakes.

Really, everything in this post ties back to plotting, it seems. Plotting can help eliminate some plot holes. Of course, you’re probably going to miss some, because that’s just how this writing thing works (sigh), but hopefully you’ll catch most of them early on, instead of two chapters into your sequel. (That is, of course, if you’re writing a sequel. Otherwise, I don’t know if I would have caught my plot holes without my sequel.)

I guess this is what I get for writing my story when I should have been sleeping.

 6. Not Thinking About My Story

This might sound silly, but I actively kept myself from thinking about my book when I wasn’t writing it, thinking that somehow I would lose inspiration or something. I don’t know. Looking back on it now, I can see how ridiculous I was, constantly forcing myself to think of something other than my book.

I don’t know if anyone else does this, but if you do… Well, I really don’t know what to tell you other than, no, thinking about my story did not make me lose focus on it. Thinking about your story is a good thing, because otherwise you might miss something big your brain is trying to come up with.

Of course, now my brain overcompensates for all the time I spent not thinking about my story. My brain is constantly thinking about my story, and coming up with more and more story ideas. Sometimes so much that it’s overwhelming and I just want to yell at my brain, “shut up, all ready, I’ve heard enough.” But that’s just a writer’s brain.

 Bonus: Being Afraid Of Failure

This is a big one, and I decided to add it in, not because it’s necessarily a mistake, but because it can stop you from writing to your full potential. I know it’s a big thing, trying to not fear “missing the mark”, like there’s a mark you need to reach, but just give all your insecurities to the Lord, and he will give you peace.

Fear can stop you from doing so many things, don’t let it stop you from writing. Don’t ever be afraid to write, because there is nothing to hold you back. Write like you’ve never heard a failure. And just have fun.

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Anyway, that’s my major points on writing your first novel. Hope you enjoy (and get a laugh) and give me your thoughts in the comments below. 😉