17 Things I Learned from Writing My First Novel at 17

In honor of National Novel Writing Month beginning tomorrow, I thought I’d pull an article out of the graveyard of documents left behind from my high school blog. The one that I was the most proud to write, not because it was my best, but because of what it meant to me.

Four years ago, when I was seventeen years old and a senior in high school, I participated in National Novel Writing Month, affectionately known as Nanowrimo, and finished my first novel. All these years later, that project sits along with this post in the writing cemetery, but it was a pivotal experience in my life nonetheless.

Now, graduated from college and free of the constant social temptation that kept me from making any progress for the last three Novembers, I’m going to be participating in the challenge once again.

The list of things I learned from my first year of Nanowrimo has changed completely, even though the experience has not. These years of reflection, as well as my professional and personal growth during this time, have left me with a whole new list of the things I really learned from my first National Novel Writing Month.

I’ll save you the misguided musings of my high school self, and leave you with the new and improved version of the seventeen things I learned from writing my first novel at seventeen.

1. Balance Quality and Quantity

Nanowrimo’s magic comes from prioritizing quantity so you can get your ideas onto the page without stopping to second-guess yourself. This is a great tactic, and it works for a lot of people, but during my first experience writing a novel in a month, I let quantity completely overtake quality. Balance is crucial when it comes to this challenge: get it done, but make sure there’s something you can salvage at the end of the month.

2. Don’t Leave Too Much of a Mess to Edit

Building off of number one, don’t overestimate the patience you’ll have when editing time rolls around. Before writing my first novel, I’d read countless advice articles and novelling tips, most of which wrote off the first draft as a throwaway which would be almost unrecognizable by the final draft. While this may be true for some novelists, I took this advice to heart and left myself a mess that, four years later, I still can’t bring myself to edit.

3. Show, Don’t Tell, Even if it Scares You

In the original version of this article, I cited description as my biggest weakness in writing. This is funny to me now, because almost everyone who’s read my work in the years since has told me it’s my biggest strength. At the time, I was so scared of embarrassing myself in an attempt to write something good that I put in less effort to save myself the pain of not being enough. It took me until my second college writing workshop to realize that there’s no shame in trying your best and failing, and this is when my confidence as a writer really began.

4. Invest in Your Work

Don’t be afraid to treat your idea like a real novel. If you go into your writing with doubts that it will ever become anything, odds are it won’t. Find ways to hold yourself accountable for making this dream a reality. Tell your friends and family about it, set a goal for a release date, or mock up some promotional materials. For this year’s Nanowrimo, I’m already looking for the perfect cover designer for my book. For me, this makes the whole thing feel real and motivates me to get writing.

5. Anything is Possible With Good Time Management

You’re always going to be busy, and you’ll never feel like you have enough time to write a novel. Even if you skip your daily scroll through Instagram and write in your notes app for fifteen minutes, you’re still making progress. Don’t put it off any longer; imagine where you’d be now if you started off with baby steps a year ago!

6. Take Care of Your Confidence

Inevitably, a few days or weeks into writing your novel, you’re going to start losing your confidence in it. You’ll start dreaming about other ideas, or worse, thinking about quitting altogether. Find things and people who bolster your writing confidence and check in regularly. You’re going to need that confidence to cross the finish line!

7. Make it Fun

Don’t let writing become a chore. If you’re taking on this project, odds are it started from a love of storytelling. Remember that passion and find routines that make you look forward to writing every day.

8. Let Your Characters Decide Sometimes

Whether or not you’re a detailed planner, make sure you leave yourself some room to move. Characters tend to take on a life of their own and make their own decisions, which often makes for the best scenes!

9. Explore Character Interactions

Speaking of characters, a great way to get back on track when you’re stuck is to throw two characters who wouldn’t normally interact into a scene together. You’ll learn things about both of them and maybe even end up with a new storyline to follow.

10. Seek Out Support

One of the main things that got me to that 50,000 word goal at the end of the month was the community of people I found through writing a blog. I posted weekly updates of my progress, and the comments were always full of people supporting me and sharing their own journey. This, on top of following along with my buddies’ writing goals on the Nanowrimo website, kept me accountable and stopped me from giving up more than once.

11. Focus on the Journey, Not the Destination

I tend to jump the gun a little when it comes to writing. I get caught up in the excitement of being done, having my story published, and holding it in my own hands. This only serves to make me impatient in my writing, which usually ends in abandoning an idea altogether. Just like number seven, it’s important to enjoy the process and let the results come when you’re ready.

12. Don’t Be Too Hard on Yourself

If you expect to write the next Harry Potter with a snap of your fingers, you’re only setting yourself up for disappointment. Success in writing comes from managing expectations and celebrating small wins. You can be your biggest fan or your own worst critic; the latter is only likely to hold you back, while the former will propel you forward.

13. The First Draft is About Discovery

Some professionals think of the first draft as a lengthy outline, and the second draft as the place where your story really begins. I half agree with this; I think of the first draft as a perfect place for discovering all the holes in your story you can’t quite fill in while planning out your scenes. Let your story go off the rails if that’s where it takes you; maybe you’ll end up with something even better than you originally planned.

14. Write Anywhere, Using Anything

I’ve never actually followed this advice myself, but seeing as my job has me returning to the office the day that Nanowrimo begins, it may come in handy. I’ve heard of people recording voice notes, clicking away at scenes on their phone, or writing snippets on napkins (the old JK Rowling method). Whatever it takes to get the words down!

15. Check Your Perfectionism at the Door

A perfectionist myself, I know how much perfectionism can ruin a perfectly good idea. Sometimes I’ll get caught up in finding the perfect words for so long that I don’t even want to write anymore. Try to keep in mind that your self-worth doesn’t rely on one beautifully-crafted sentence.

16. Mistakes Make You Better

It took me four years to read more than a chapter of my Nanowrimo 2017 manuscript. I was so bored by my own story that I couldn’t even force myself to read it for that long. Having written something like that could have been enough to make me delete all the files on my laptop and never write again. Instead, I learned valuable lessons from this failure, and my writing has only gotten better since.

17. There is No Right Time

Finally, even if you think you’re too old or too young, too busy or too inexperienced, don’t wait around for the right time to work for what you want. I thought seventeen was too young to write a novel, but I did it anyway. No matter where you are in your life, you’ll never regret taking a step toward what you want.

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