Three Lessons I Learned From Writing My Fourth Novel
My recently published paranormal romance, Her Witch, Her Demon, took me exactly a year to write and rewrite.
Here are three lessons I learned while writing the book.
Lesson #1: Outlines are indispensable
My fourth novel didn’t start as a novel.
It was a very simple idea I had for a short story. After writing that short story, I fell in love with the two main characters — Nyx and Meredith — and decided to explore more of their story.
I tried to do this by writing a series of short stories, with each story examining a new idea or theme.
After the second short story, I decided that I liked these characters so much I wanted to turn it into a novel. So I wrote the third chapter. I would go with the flow, I told myself. No need to plan the story. I would simply come up with the idea for a chapter and then write.
Mind you, based on my experience from writing my first novel, I knew I was a plotter through and through. Without an outline, I couldn’t focus. Besides, my outlines weren’t just a mere page. They usually spanned more than thirty pages.
However, since I was trying something new, I simply had a rough one-page outline of the new novel. It shouldn’t be too hard, right?
Excuse me while I laugh.
By the time I got to chapter 4, I got stuck.
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t come up with anything. And if I did come up with something, I couldn’t write until I knew how the whole book would end.
I’ve always known I was a plotter, but writing Her Witch, Her Demon cemented this knowledge forever. Outlines were a necessity for me. I couldn’t write a word of my story without planning out the whole thing from beginning to end.
When I was simply relying on my instinct and going with the flow, writing the story dragged on forever. But once I sat down and started reorganizing the whole thing from scratch, everything became easier.
By the time I outlined the whole thing, I knew exactly what the entire story would be about. And not only that, I even knew what would happen in the sequels.
Outlines don’t only give me direction, but they also make me a super fast writer. Unfortunately, I wasted too many months just going with the flow instead of creating an outline from the beginning.
But I’ve learned my lesson now. In future books, I will never do away with an outline.
If you’re struggling to finish a book, it’s probably because you don’t have an outline. Try planning your whole book and see how it goes. But remember that your outline doesn’t have to be rigid. You can always add new things and take out ideas that aren’t working.
It’s malleable. How you shape it is all up to you. It’s a tool. Use it accordingly.
Lesson #2: Ideas are nothing without creativity
I don’t doubt that some ideas are objectively great. You get them and you’re fired up with unbridled passion. Deep down, you know this is an amazing idea and once you execute it, people will love it.
But the thing is that having a great idea doesn’t always mean you’ll write a great story. After all, ideas are just that… ideas.
Give two people the same great idea and they will create different stories. The stories might be amazing or plain terrible. It has little to do with the idea and more to do with the storyteller's skills.
That’s why I believe that creativity is far more important than having the best concept.
While writing Her Witch, Her Demon, I was bombarded by so many different ideas. Some good, some bad, and some plain ridiculous.
I almost discarded most of them because I thought they were terrible. But then after a lot of tinkering, they started taking form.
As a writer, you should be more concerned with your creativity than getting the best ideas. The more creative you are, the easier you can turn ordinary ideas into extraordinary ones. Without creativity, there’s nothing you can do with amazing ideas. They just become stale.
I used to be obsessed with finding the perfect idea. But there’s no such thing. Excellent execution fueled by creativity will transform the most mundane idea into a so-called perfect idea.
Besides, one idea doesn’t make a book. A book is a combination of so many ideas. No idea is too big or too small. I treat them all the same. After all, with a new perspective, any idea can be good. Maybe not in the same story, but you can use it in another story.
I used to have this unreasonable fear that I would run out of stories. But that’s just ridiculous. Creativity never runs out as long as you use it. An interesting paradox. But it’s true. You only get rusty when you use it less. And the more you use it, the more creative you become. So as long as you’re creative, you’ll also never run out of ideas.
It’s creativity that refines mundane ideas into pure gold.
Lesson #3: Readers are smarter than you think
This is the biggest lesson I learned in 2023 while writing my novel.
At the time, I was publishing it chapter by chapter online for feedback.
I tried to use elements like foreshadowing, suspense, and sometimes plot twists.
Readers got intrigued by them. They would write long in-depth theories about why they believed a certain character was behaving in a particular way. Most of the theories were interesting and made a lot of sense. While I enjoyed reading them, it made me realize that I couldn’t just make stuff up and expect readers to take it.
If something didn’t make sense, or there was a plot hole somewhere, they would see it.
Besides, I’m a reader myself. If I read a book and a character takes an action that goes against their character just to further the plot, it will piss me off. So course, it makes no goddamn sense to think that other readers aren’t like that.
I just didn’t realize it until I published my novel online. Reading all those comments put me on my toes. I knew that I couldn’t just bullshit my way through the story. All conflicts must be eventually resolved, characters couldn’t suddenly go missing without explanation, and the magic systems of the book must make sense.
Readers would notice if something was missing. And in fact, readers did notice some plot holes I had in the story.
Getting their feedback was great in improving the story.
I’ve always put my reader first. But since writing Her Witch, Her Demon, I’ve become even more particular about that. The goal is to write with absolute clarity while also making it entertaining enough to keep the reader engaged.
Learning from these lessons, I hope to write an even better sequel to Her Witch, Her Demon.
I’m never compromising on outlines again. I’ve learned the hard way that I can’t do without them. I’m also more concerned about building my creativity. Since the more creative you are, the better your ideas become.
And finally, writers will do well to remember that readers are incredibly smart. If something in the story doesn’t add up, they will sense it. So as writers, we must do well to write memorable stories.
Thanks for reading.
Want to support my work? Go read my paranormal romance, Her Wtich, Her Demon, or buy me a coffee.
