A Novel Idea

"There are three rules for writing a novel. Unforunately, no one knows what they are." --

I love going to used bookstores. Every time I go, I always look for the section that has books on writing. I'm not sure why; I never end up buying any of them. I've never found "that book" that explains exactly how to start, work on, finish, and publish a novel. I'm of the belief that you can't find out how to write well from a book on writing as well as you can from an actual book.

Ie., if you want to write fantasy stories, you'd better be reading fantasy books to see how the "masters" do it and learn what type of fantasy story really markets itself well.

I've written a few novels (none of which are published yet) and I think the best novel advice I can give anyone is to learn when to let go.

I've been working on this novel for six years now. I wrote the first draft in high school and it's been through about four major overhaul revisions since I finished the first draft. Everything from completely changing the ending, to completely changing the beginning to moving the whole story from first-person point of view to third-person limited point of view. It's been a long time coming. Several people have read it and given me feedback. I've queried about five or six agents with no luck.

I'm at a point now where the novel is sitting on my computer staring at me with this mocking glare, daring me to edit it some more. And I always fall victim to its mocks. It's almost an annual thing to do an overhaul these days on the book and part of me thinks the reason for this is that I know if I'm still editing it that I can't send out query letters.

And there's plenty of reasons that I'm afraid to query. Having the novel accepted means that I'm done. It means that the story has been abandoned until an editor rips through it and I guess having an editor rip through my story is the equivalent of being raped. It means that my vision for the story becomes lost as an editor looks at the story merely as an item for sale. To me, this story is part of my life. It's an actual, tangible piece of my soul stuck on two flash drives, two hard drives, two floppy disks (You can see my paranoia of a technology failure) and two large 3-inch binders. It's a piece of my life and the idea of someone else judging it bugs me.

Which is why I'm telling you that if you ever want to write and publish a novel, learn to let it go. Learn that if you want your work published, you have to learn to create and let it lead its own life. It's very much like parenthood. Your novel is your baby, and whether you believe it or not, if it's meant to be shared with the world, it will do so, whether you really want it to or not. But you have to let it go. I have to let go of my novel and let it try and stand on its own two feet in front of a literary agent and potential editors. I'm not of the illusion that this is going to be a quick and easy process. I realize it will be painful. I realize that I'm going to see a lot more rejections before I see a few acceptances.

But I also realize it'll be worth it when the book is on the shelves and I can walk into Barnes and Nobles and see it on the shelf. It makes it a little easier to move towards the process of letting go.