5 Misconceptions I had about writing a novel

A little over three years ago I decided that I would take up writing. After almost 20 years as a corporate worker bee, I decided that I needed something more meaningful in life. I know what to do, write a book that will make me famous.
I am a software developer and I decided that I wanted a more artistic pursuit in my life. Not that software development didn’t require a certain amount of creativity to complete tasks, but for me, it felt formulaic. They would assign me tasks and I would work out the solution in my head before I even typed a line of code on the computer. It became automatic for me. It felt boring and static. I wanted no I needed more out of my life.
I had always had the crazy thought I could write a book. Maybe I could be the next big thing. I could get crazy rich like J. K. Rowling. All I had to do was take out my laptop, open a blank word document and write my masterpiece. So I did that, I had an idea for the next bestseller. J. K. Rowling can eat her heart out because I will put Harry Potter to shame.
I typed away with a brilliant story. I created a hero who did hero things like waking up in chapter 1 and describing himself in the mirror then walking out the front door and instantly falling in love with the first beautiful woman they met. That would get 3 or 4 chapters then I would stop and think okay what next. When I couldn’t think of what to do next, I gave up because that wasn’t the right story. I would start the process all over again knowing this one would be the story that would change my life. It wasn’t. I kept deluding myself. As the saying goes, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and expecting different results”.
At this point of ultimate frustration, I decided it was time to try something different. I had been trying and failing for over a year in my pursuit of writing a book. Deciding that maybe I should study and learn how to write a book I googled “how to write a book”. I discovered that the internet was full of resources and other writers happy to give you help on how to write a book. It was at this point I discovered the promised land of booktube and the indie writer community. I turned the corner on my writing journey. This was where I discovered how wrong I was about the skills it takes to write a book that people want to read.
I present you with the 5 things I had misconceptions about writing as a career.
#1 — Writing is pure inspiration
I thought for sure that writing was just something that happened when you decided it was time to write a book. I hate to pick on Stephen King’s book, Misery, and the movie that created from it. That made me think all you needed was the proper motivation to write a book and then you write a book. I thought all writers had a psychopathic nurse holding them hostage and forcing them to write. Well, maybe not that extreme but I will take the chance if that means I will be a rich and famous author. It wasn’t until I studied the craft of writing I discovered just how wrong I was about just about everything with writing.
#2 — Writing is not a skill or craft that needs honing.
I figured if you type enough words on the page this magical story will appear and people will read it. I did not understand the amount of work that goes behind writing a good book.
Discovering things like plotting, character sketches, outlining, and world-building are the magic behind writing a good book. Plan for what you will write. That you have to work out detailed specs on where you will go with your story and your characters and this makes a book. This is how I got thru the basics of introducing my characters, describing them in a mirror, and then not understand where to go next. I knew why the stories always fell flat and I got discouraged. There wasn’t a plan for how to end the story, give the characters' flaws, or goals to achieve.
Now before the pantsers (people who write by the seat of their pants without an outline) get angry, let’s say a few things. I doubt that there are many true pantsers out there that don’t at least have a general plan on who the characters are and where the story will go. Stephen King is a known pantser but still has a good plan laid out before sitting down and typing out any words. Stephen King has been doing this for many years and has the experience to get through the basics.
#3 — Writing is a solitary profession
It’s just the writer in a semi-dark room hunched over a keyboard pounding out what will make this magical story. This is true but in reality, no writer can do a book alone.
Writers need support just like any other profession. A writer cannot do this solo. Writers need other people to help. There are critique partners, beta readers, and editors. These people approach the other writing with fresh and unbiased eyes. These people can see the things that cannot see because writers are too close to the writing. This leads to the next misconception.
#4- Other writers are the enemy
This is silly for saying but it happens. People in the writing world hesitate to have other people read their work before it’s published because the worry is someone could steal the writing. No self-respecting writer will steal another’s work and try to pass the words off as their own. That is unless the thief wants to get called out on every social media platform and become an outcast in the community.
The writing community is very inclusive and helpful. Are there writers who don’t want to help or be part of a community? Sure there are people like that in any profession. The writing community supports new writers. Writers want to see other writers succeed. Seek other writers who need help because this has so many benefits for everybody. Reading other writers work helps to make a better writer. Seeing the mistakes others make, make a person go back and look at their own work and look for the same mistakes. This is how writers make themselves better.
Helping other writers become better writers also helps build a personal reputation as a writer. Support and promote other writers with genuine support and the others will return the favor. Nobody gets to the top alone. A real writer will help push colleagues to be the best and colleagues will push other writers to the best writer.
#5 — Writing isn’t like my current profession
This was the biggest lesson I learned. To bring back to what made me want to seek writing, I realized why I was feeling unfulfilled as a programmer. It was because I have spent 20 years perfecting the craft of programming. It wasn’t much of a challenge anymore but it wasn’t always that way. I made mistakes. I struggled and learned which helped me become better with every program I wrote. Thinking about all the times I took program specs or an outline if you will and wrote a program to only get to the end and compile that program to find it wouldn’t work. I would have to go back and work out the holes in my program to make it work because entire sections of code weren’t working. Sometimes I would almost have to rewrite the entire program because my concept was off and I realized that I could make the program simpler and get to the same result. Does any of this sound familiar? This is just writing, revising and editing just program language instead of English.
Taking a step back from writing and testing what makes a good programmer. I asked how I could make a better writer. The realization was that I needed to approach writing the same way I did programming. I needed to write a plan to write the story. Then I had to compile that story and see if it works. If the story doesn’t work, then I need to go back and work at it till it does. Just like I do when I write a program. Only through hard work along with trial and error can I become as good at writing as I am at programming.
Conclusion
The misconception was that writing differs from other professions. In other professions, the stuff a person knows is learned by doing the job every day. Nobody is an expert on the first day, so do the work and learn the skills. There is no shortcut to being a good writer. Just like everything else a writer only get better by writing.
Ask anybody in any profession the following question. How much did you know about the job before you did the job? 99% of the people will say I learned by doing the job. Writing is no different!