I WROTE A BOOK!!!

Well, technically it’s just the first draft. There is plenty of editing and rewriting to be done on it before it is completely finished. But I can still say that I wrote a book.

And I know I haven’t talked about it at all here on the blog, but I’ve been working on it for the past seven months. And now, I am finally finished with the first draft. It ended up being close to 96K words long and over 250 pages. That’s a lot of words and pages. In fact, after I printed it out, it measured over 1 inch thick.

It’s a very messy story, very much in need of edits. There are enough plot holes to sink a ship, character personalities are SO inconsistent, details don’t match throughout the story, and the plot is just too weak to carry itself. But it is written – which is more than I can say of any of my other stories.

My story represents nearly seven months of late nights writing, intense brainstorming sessions, hours of trying to find the right words, and so many prayers. I’ve learned so much from writing this story, so I thought I would share some of the things I learned along the way.

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What I’ve Learned

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1. It is possible to do great things one step at a time.

I know this is only the first draft, only the first step on that long, hard road to publication. But writing a full first draft, pushing all the way through until you write THE END is hard. Even though it’s only the first step to publication, completing the rough draft is still a HUGE victory. Even though it’s just one step, it’s a big step. And big steps can be hard to make unless you break them down into smaller steps. For me, that meant keeping track of how much I wrote each week and sharing my weekly progress on my IG. Sure 2K words might not be much compared to the 96K of the full draft. But 2K in a week is still 2K more than the week before. So I celebrated my progress, even if it was small, even if it seemed insignificant. In the long run, it was the small victory after small victory that gave me the big victory at the end.

2. The first draft is going to be imperfect.

Rough drafts are going to be rough. First drafts are only the first. They will be messy, they will have problems, they will be very imperfect. Perfection is NOT the point of writing a first draft, anyway. The point of writing a first draft is to get the story out of your head into written, editable form. My first draft is more of a mess than I would have even thought possible. But edits exist for a reason. And you can’t edit a blank page. So get that rough draft written and worry about the edits later.

3. Community is a must.

This one is especially for the introverts, the writers and creatives who think that they can do it all themselves. I am as introverted as it gets (and I mean that literally – all of my personality tests come back as 100% introvert.), but I could never have finished my first draft without the encouragement, enthusiasm, and support of my writing community. Without all those late night writing sprints with my Glory Writer NaNo friends, I would never have finished my story. Community is a must, even if you are an introvert. Don’t be shy to reach out and make new friends. Don’t be afraid to ask for help or prayers. There are thousands of other Christian writers out there who’ve been through the same struggles you have, and they are willing to go to war to help you. So don’t be afraid to ask for their help.

4. It’s okay to learn as you go.

I guess this is something I didn’t really know when I started writing my first draft, but I really had no idea what I was doing. Sure, I’ve read plenty of books on how to write books, I’ve watched plenty of writing tutorials and heard TONS of advice over my years of writing. But even that was not enough to prepare me for the very personal journey of writing a first draft. I learned a lot about myself, my writing habits, my quirks. There were several times I had to pause my writing to research one thing or another, whether it was physics, fencing moves, or mapmaking. There was a lot of stuff I didn’t even know I needed to know until I came to the point when I needed to write it. Since I’ve never finished a rough draft before, I was clueless on how to wrap up a 250+ page story. But I did it. It might not be perfect, it might not be the greatest ending, but I wrote it. I wrote a book. And now I know more than I did before. It’s okay to learn as you go, because sometimes that’s the only way to really learn something. So don’t hold yourself back just because you feel like you might not be knowledgeable enough.

Thoughts

Even though I wrote this book, this first draft, I know that I have barely even scratched the surface of becoming a published author one day. I know there will be many more late nights ahead of me, more intense brainstorming sessions, rewrites, edits, tears, and prayers. There is more to learn and a ton more to do before I actually get this story to the point of publication.

But even if I never make it to publishing this story, it was still worth writing, even if it is only for me. Because I learned so much, because I proved that with patience and perseverance, taking small steps but always moving forward, with God’s help, I can accomplish big things.

Yes, it took me countless hours over a span of nearly seven months to write. But I did it. If I had told myself that it would take months to write, that there would be countless struggles and frustrations while writing it, if I had let myself get depressed by the weeks with little or no progress, if I had looked at all of the negatives of writing a very imperfect first draft, then maybe I would not have written it. Maybe I would never have gotten to the point where I could actually say that I wrote a book, where I could hold this 1 inch thick draft in my hands – nearly 100K words that I wrote all on my own. I would not have known the delight, the exhilaration, the unimaginable joy of having finished writing a rough draft.

And although so much time and trouble was spent writing it, every moment, every worry was worth it. And I would eagerly do it all again.

Conclusion

So here’s encouragement for you if you are struggling with your writing. It is worth it. It is worth every moment, every tear, every prayer you pour into it. Do not let your doubts and fears hold you back. God’s got this. And with Him, you can do even impossible things.

P.S. You can also follow me at my other blog, Kenmore Pines 1, here.
To learn more about this blog check out my blog launch post here.
And you can find my Instagram here.