What I learned in the 7+ years it took me to write my first novella (& how you can do it in less time!)

I first began writing THE ONE in 2015 during my freshman year of college. I first had the idea the previous semester in my intro to creative writing course. So, why did it take until January of 2022, a full seven years to finish this novella and publish it? Well, I had no idea what I was doing. I learned so much in the last seven years and I’m hoping that getting over this steep learning curve will speed up the timeline on future books. Who knows. I am publishing IT’S CALLED VODKA, DARLING in August and I had the idea for that book in high school and started writing it in college as well. So maybe it just takes me forever to crank out a book.

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In the past seven years, I’ve learned how to:

• outline a book and how to stick to said outline (and at times when to break from the outline as well).

• format a manuscript for print and eBook editions!

• upload and publish a book on Kindle and Barnes & Noble Press.

• design an eBook cover.

• design and format a print cover in multiple sizes!

• grow my author social media platforms.

• start and sporadically publish a newsletter.

• revise and edit a book (an essential skill as I can’t afford an editor at this point).

• maintain relationships with my readers and customers.

• set up a business with my state and start Hartsfield Homestead & Press, LLC!

• set up a business bank account and keep an eye on my finances.

• pay for my books without going into debt!

• set up and then do a book tour!

• type a book one-handed while holding a newborn (twice!).

• function on absolutely no sleep and still show up to write, blog, and market my work on social media.

• begin gathering a supportive creative community to help keep me on track and enjoy the creative process.

• call myself a writer/poet and not feel like an imposter (well, not as big of an imposter. still working on this).

• buy and assign ISBNs.

• apply for a Library of Congress Catalogue Number.

• copyright my works!

• keep on going even when this feels impossible.

• tell when a book is done.

Wow, that’s a pretty long list! It’s not exhaustive, either. But it gives you a good sense of what’s been going on behind the scenes and under the surface. See, building a life and career in writing takes so much more than just writing a book. So, how can you learn to do this in less time than it took me? I’m so glad you asked! I’ve already started writing a series of blog posts to help fellow writers out and I will continue to link articles to this list. Please, read my mistakes and make your own!

If you want actionable advice, right now, Here are my top three pieces of advice for writing in less time:

1) Practice writing! The more you do it, the better (and faster) you’ll become. This post has some exercises to get you started,

2) Silence your inner editor. Train yourself to write without editing. Yes, having a polished manuscript is important but there will be nothing to polish if you don’t write something. So resist the urge to edit-as-you-write, at least for the first draft. It’s called a rough draft for a reason.

3) Spend more time outlining and researching. Immerse yourself in planning your novel out. Every time I got stuck with my writing I could trace it back to a lack of planning and research. So figure out what your story is about before you sit down to draft it. And if you’re mid-write and you know you need to research something, write yourself a quick note and then get back to writing. If you research whatever it is right then you’ll run the risk of falling down the rabbit hole and losing steam.

After five years of writing, I wrote a 30K word first draft over Labor Day Weekend in 2020 so it is possible to crank out books in no time. But two years later, that book is not ready for publication yet. I used these three tips above and set aside time for writing to make that draft happen. There is a lot to learn if you are planning on writing and publishing your own books, but it is possible to do that and make a reliable income (if you’re willing to work really hard at it!). Writing is not a get-rich-quick scheme and it isn’t “passive” income. Even if an author gets to the point of surviving off of royalties, they do so by writing more books. But if writing and self-publishing is what you want to do the process is becoming more and more accessible every year.