Changing How I Write

For those of you who don’t know, I’ve written a novel.

It was a great and crazy experience, and something I attempted with a bit of smug pride. I will totally admit that after reading a certain vampire series the thought which went through my mind was, “If she can do it, so can I.”

The good news is the result was my first novel.

The bad news is the result was my first novel.

What I mean to say is that I took on an ambitious goal and I completed it. However, the book has some flaws in it which point out my lack of experience in writing something 60,000 words long. So now as I find myself ready to delve in the process of writing a new book I am trying to take a more critical look at my process and how I can write a better novel this time.

First of all, I want to get to know my characters better. I want dive deep into who they are and maybe do more excersices in allowing them to speak. One of the constructive critisms I received about my first book was about how my characters were not defined by the words they used, the uncle could have been the father, could have been the main character, could have been the villian.

Second, I want to know where the story goes as I write. I wrote the first book without much planning. I started at the beginning and wrote it through to the end, or more accurately until I cut it off. Since I did not have a plan the story could have kept going on forever and it does actually leave the reader in a serious cliffhanger. I also had some major holes in the story and places where the timeline didn’t always meet up correctly, so I had to go back and fix them. The experience was a little like plugging holes in a sinking ship; as soon as I fixed one issue there was a new one.

Lastly, I want to get help. When I wrote the first novel I had a cheerleader which is one of the reasons why I was able to finish the book. I sent chapters as I was writing them to a friend of mine who loved everything I wrote. This was very encouraging, however, I am dreamy sort of writer who is often not bothered by things like grammer and my spelling is atrocious. This was another criticism I received and which I find important to correct.

So tell me, do you have any suggestions on how to write better? What does your process look like?