What I Learned From Writing My First Novel: Re-Write, and Embrace It

Initially, the whole idea of a novel felt daunting, and so I wanted to create a collection of horror short stories. But after finding out that the MFA program I went for doesn’t really accept short story collections, I had to switch my scope. Because I already had tons of short stories in the vault—and still do—I based it on an old short story I had.

The short story I expanded on ended with the first hole, which is a kind of like a portal, forming itself in a basement, which was created by corrupt rich people, and it unleashes a bunch of unimaginable horrors into the world. What I ended up doing was turning it into something more personal.

I realized that there aren’t many cosmic horror stories based in Puerto Rico, at least to my knowledge, and so I decided to base my first novel on my island. I had planned for my short stories to take place in Puerto Rico, or at least a world inspired by Puerto Rico, so I figured, “Why not?”

It might come as a shock to some people, but short stories are shorter than novels. But what surprised me was that it wasn’t hard to reach the word-count of 50k minimum. I had already envisioned how I wanted my story to play out, and after I finished the outline, it wasn’t hard to reach completion. What was particularly hard was how I was tackling this novel, as it has four different perspectives.

But, as I revise my novel again, for the fourth time, there’ are a couple of things that I learned.

Outlines Are Great Time Savers

Not everyone likes to do outlines, and not everyone needs them. But for me? They helped me a lot. The way I look at outlines is that they’re maps you used to plot your route. There are different ways to reach your destination, but it would be nice to figure out your options, maybe what you need to make it there, and maybe you even find out that you need to bring something else with you.

Outlines helped me get grounded in my novel, as they did show me when I needed to develop a character, where I would need more detail or conflict, or where I should cut things because they didn’t push the story forward. Oh, and I did revise my outline a couple of times, because it’s easier to edit an outline than to edit a novel.

You Can’t Edit a Blank Page: Tips for Drafting

Something that’s applicable in a lot of fields is that you can refine if you don’t start. I even see this a lot in my classes, as I’m an English professor, where students are just stumped because they don’t know how to start, even though we’re drafting. Funny enough, that’s something I also had to get over, as I stare at a blank screen, or half blank, thinking on how to start or how to continue.

Something that I had to accept is that a draft is a draft, meaning it will need to be fixed, and it may even sound horrible or dumb, but that’s the point of a draft. Drafting is all about vomiting your idea into the paper, then going back to clean it up, leaving only the good stuff. Maybe that’s not really a great image, but it works, I think.

The First Novel Revision Is Just the Beginning

When I first finished my novel, I felt such relief. So much pressure just left my body, and I even felt like crying. All those months spent writing and battling my doubts, and now I had finished a novel. Well, not really finished, but the foundations were finished. Because once the novel is done for the first time, the next step is to re-write it, revise it, refine it.

The way I do it is that, because I have two monitors, I put my old novel on the left screen and my new novel on the right screen. The reason I call it old and new is that I re-write the whole novel from scratch, improving everywhere I think needs to be improved. This could mean character development, scene description, dialogue, and grammatical errors. After my first revision, I could see why people pay for editors, but I don’t have the money for it, and it could be worse. I could be a fantasy writer. I’m now on my fourth revision, and it does feel amazing because I can compare my older version to my newer version.

Feedback: Different Eyes Spot Different Mistakes

Something that not everyone has accessible but is helpful, is a different set of eyes. Whether it’s your parent, a friend, a partner, doesn’t matter as long as they read, let them read it and then poke their brain. While you should keep in mind that just because they do or don’t like it or understand it or don’t, doesn’t mean it’s true, but it does give you an idea of how it’s perceived. I remember writing a story where people thought that the end was edgy because I made it gory, while all I thought it’s that it was cool.

Closing Thoughts

Writing is rewarding just as it’s taxing on your mental health, so something I did was take breaks. Every couple of words, I’ve taken a break by playing a video game. I did this because at one point, I was burning out with how much I was typing and pressuring myself to create a great story. But what’s most important is that you are involved in your story writing process, that you believe in what you write, and that you’re honest with your capabilities, meaning weaknesses and strengths, as a writer.