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Readers Hope

We feature insightful stories of new writers. Subscribe to our content marketing strategy insights on Substack: https://drmehmetyildiz.substack.com/ Writer applications: https://digitalmehmet.com/contact/

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Why You Can’t Move On From Your First Chapter

6 min readJan 27, 2025

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Photo by Magnet.me on Unsplash

When looking up how difficult it is to become an author, I’ve found a common number pop up.

97% of writers never finish writing a novel. Why is that? When talking to other writers, I’ve found a common theme among many of them. Of all the reasons, these are the top four things I’ve come across.

1. You lack the confidence to move on

Something I’ve noticed among writers is they frequently ask for validation.

“Hey, I have this idea for a novel. Can someone tell me if it’s good?”

When I ask them how far along they are, not one of them has ever said they’re farther than the first chapter. Some will say they’ve written a page or two, and in one case, they said they had only written three sentences.

“Well, it’s because I don’t know what to write because I’m not sure if it’s good.”

Here’s the thing though. It’s not going to be good. It’s unrealistic you’ll ever produce a good novel if you’ve never written one before.

So then, why are you aiming for your novel to be perfect?

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Readers Hope
Readers Hope

Published in Readers Hope

We feature insightful stories of new writers. Subscribe to our content marketing strategy insights on Substack: https://drmehmetyildiz.substack.com/ Writer applications: https://digitalmehmet.com/contact/

Silver X. Bishop
Silver X. Bishop

Written by Silver X. Bishop

Horror author of Silence in the Winter. Whispers in the Spring, coming later in 2025! https://silverxbishop.carrd.co/