Sally Hepworth: “Your First Book Might Be Very Bad — and That’s OK”

You’ve written something, now move on to the next one

Wake Up and Write is an advice column from Moms Don’t Have Time to Write. Today, we have Sally Hepworth — New York Times bestselling author of novels including The Younger Wife— who shared writing advice on the podcast Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books, hosted by Zibby Owens.

“Just read as much as you can. Then write as much as you can.”

“Don’t get caught in that silo that I see people get into where they just want everything to be perfect before they write. Maybe they want to go and get that writing degree. Maybe they want to buy all of these writing programs or read every book about writing or get a PhD in history if it’s a historical novel. I see that in so many cases, which is fear, fear of starting.

You have to just dive in because that’s how you beat the fear. Write a really bad book if you have to. My first book was the worst book in the world. I can back that up as well. That’s not just self-deprecating. Wrote that book, sent it off. It was published, as it happens, in German. Thank goodness because now no one else can read it unless they’re German. I tell the Germans, ‘Don’t read it because that was a really bad book.’

Since then, I’ve gone on to publish all of these other books. We’ve had offers from other publishers to publish it in English. My agent said, ‘What do you think? Should we do it?’ I said, ‘No, because I don’t want anyone to read it.’ He said, ‘Oh, it can’t be that bad. Can it?’ I said, ‘I’ll send it to you.’ I sent it to him. Within about two minutes, he’d replied and said, ‘You know what? Let’s leave it.’

It’s okay for your first book to be really bad. You’ve just got to write it. Then you write the next one. You get your ten thousand hours to become an expert. You’re not going to get that if you’re stuck trying to get everything lined up and make it perfect before you start.”