Lessons I Learned Writing My Latest Novel

The Meet Cute Curse is my third novel, but my fifth work of fiction. You would think that it gets easier the more writing that you do, but that isn't strictly true. Every novel presents it's own challenges and starting from scratch is never easy. However, there are a few things that I've learned along the way that should make it easier to take an idea and turn it into a novel. So here are the lessons that I learned when writing my latest novel.

1. Plan The Pace

   The first thing that I made sure to do with this novel was to plan out what I want to happen in each chapter. It's the chance to decide how you want the book to flow and to make sure you have enough content for each chapter. I did do something similar with Who Are We To Be but this time, the chapters were a little longer and I left gaps for where other things could happen. Although I like planning the plot, I also enjoy seeing where the story will take me.

2. Set Goals

   The easiest way to make sure you get the book written is to set yourself clear goals. For me, I wanted to get the novel to around 80,000 words. If I had twenty chapters, that would mean each chapter would be around 4,000 words. Once you have concrete numbers, you can decide how you want to split them up. That can mean writing 1,000 words a day, or focusing on writing a chapter a day. It depends on your time but at least you can work out how much you'll need to write if you want to get it done by a certain time.

3. Dedicate The Time

   Once you have your goals set, you want to dedicate the time to it. For me, I would try to write a couple of chapters a week which meant that four nights of the week, my goal would be 2,000 words. It was doable with my schedule and made it easier to fit it into a routine. During your writing time, you shouldn't have other distractions so make sure you don't overwhelm yourself with too high a word count.

4. Read Similar Styles

   When writing The Meet Cute Curse, I found it helpful to read other romantic comedies around the same time. It made sure that I was in that frame of mind when writing my own book. If I switched to a fantasy, I would find it harder to write in a light-hearted manner.

5. Get The Formatting Right

   From the get-go, you should have your formatting correct in terms of speech marks. It was something that I missed initially and then had to go back an correct. During the editing process, that becomes incredibly time consuming and is entirely avoidable if you get it right from the start.

6. Get Feedback

   For this novel, I also got feedback early on, from my first draft. The reason being was that it helped me to gain confidence in the voice that I was using. By seeing reactions, it helped me determined how to continue. I also got feedback on the cover design and went through numerous minor tweaks until there was a collective agreement. It also helps comparing your cover to those in similar genres to your own.

7. Have Longer Breaks

   This novel is the first time that I gave myself quite long breaks between each draft. Partially because of life commitments but also it helps to gain perspective on your own work. Some of the smaller details in the story you might forget and the more distance you have from your work, the more objectively you can read it. It becomes another book rather than your own, and that means that you can edit it in the best possible way.

8. Multiple Proofs

   I prefer reading in book format, so having a proof copy for the second edit means that it's easier for me to pick up on mistakes. It also means that I can check the cover design in real life. Doing this multiple times ensures that I end up with the best final result.

Everybody's writing process is different and even for the same author, their writing process can change from book to book. Hopefully, these tips can help you when you write your own book as well as offering a behind the scenes look at how the finished book came to life.

You can get your copy of The Meet Cute Curse here.