This is what I call the AAA post. Aka accountability and a gut check for you creative addicts out there.

Don’t worry, I’m not here to squash your hopes and dreams, in fact, I hope to encourage you to reach for the stars! But with it, here’s a little advice on building that spaceship.

I’ve written five novels, two of which are currently published. From each novel I’ve completed, I’ve grown as an author and learned a few things. The goal of this post is to save you some of the blood, sweat, and tears I shed along the way. Yes, literal blood. Martial arts classes to help me learn to write fight scenes led to more than a few injuries.

I’m going to break this post down by things I learned after each successive book I wrote.

There’s a lot of information here so just focus on one to three things you can implement in your current WIP. Take what’s helpful but don’t worry about the rest or doing it all.

What I learned from completing a trilogyHave a story bible. What color of eyes does Orion have? What is that one character’s sosh in book one vs. two? What did the head founder of the AI games look like again? Arg! These are the infuriating details that slowed me down in book three and drove me mad. The number of times I’ve had to search through books one or two to try and find them is embarrassing. I thought I had a system for this but that system was a mess and broke down as I reached the end of the series. I learned that I should have set this up better from the start. Plottr is one tool that does this for you that I might have to try for my next series. Take a break from your first draft. I used Nanowrimo as an excuse to pump out a terrible rough draft. Then I set it aside, go back to working on whatever book is actually due to my publisher. Six months later, I come back to that rough draft and, with a fresh set of eyes, begin the editing process. This doesn’t work for everyone but it works really nicely for me.Allow yourself extra time to complete the final book in the series. Finishing a series is hard. Suddenly, all of those fun new characters you added in book two are staring you in the face demanding their full life plan. All those sub plots you thought you were clever by adding? Also demanding resolution. My advice, keep the end in mind for each character you add in or each subplot. One day, everything you write will come back to haunt you in the form of the end of your series. Plant bread crumbs throughout the series. Even if you’re a plotter, there are some things you can’t anticipate. As your story grows, so do your characters and sometimes that mean character become naughty and do things they’re not supposed to. And said things wreak havoc on your perfect little plans for them. Here’s where bread crumbs come into play. In each book, you can leave a few plants of things you foreshadow that you maaaay or may not pick back up for books two or three. If you need them, they’re there. But if not, well, hopefully you didn’t make them so obvious that the reader remembers them and is wondering what the heck happened to them…

What I learned from my second and third novels

Read a book on story structure and story board before sitting down to write. I love Save the Cat Writes a Novel. That was a game changer for me. I finally understood why the pacing was off in my book and I had a rough guideline to show me how to fix it.Use Scrivner. I wrote my first book in Microsoft Word. I tried to switch to Scrivner for book two and it was really hard for me. It took overcoming some serious mental hurdles to force myself to use it. Now, I love Scrivner and how it makes me more efficient. I can’t believe I used to work in clunky ol’ Word. This tip is for sci-fi novels specifically but . . . keep your tech organized. Otherwise, you’ll spend way too much time trying to remember if Flyers used laser-hand axes or Magtouch600s and if you hyphenated them in book one or not. Kill me with said weapon now.Find critique partners at a similar point in their writing as you. Find one too advanced and you won’t be able to offer them much help. The reverse is also true. Finding someone who’s at a similar place in their writing craft as you and who you vibe with is gold. Cling to that critique partner like a cat to a laser point.

What I learned from my first novel

Here’s what the books don’t tell you.

Here’s what my older self wish my younger self knew when I first started my journey down the narrow and bumpy writer’s road. First…

Have character charts for each character AND how you want them to grow throughout the book.

Hopefully you already have a character sheet with the information you need on each character. Sorry to break it to you but while that is necessary, in the long run, all that’s going to do is ensure consistently boring characters.

You want your characters to grow and be changed by the journey they embark upon. This isn’t something that will magically occur. If you don’t have a clear plan for growing and developing your characters throughout the book, it won’t happen.

Make sure each character is critical.

Every single primary and secondary character needs to be in the book for a reason. Surgery to remove them later is a HUGE pain. For those of you who’ve ever had a wisdom tooth removed, envision that kind of pain. Now add on trying to participate in one of those hot dog eating competitions directly afterwards while simultaneously trying to get your sedated self to solve complex formulas. If your head isn’t hurting yet, you still don’t have a clear understanding of what this process is like.

Be 100% sold on a name from the start.

Also a pain is changing a character’s name mid book. Pick a good name from the start and make sure you don’t have too many main or secondary characters with names all starting with the same letters. This can confuse the reader and cause them to forget who’s who. I know the find and replace search function in Word may seem like an excuse not to worry about this one. Trust me, when you’re working with several hundred pages of manuscript, its going to be a mess unless you have it right from the start.

Don’t forget sub plot.

This was a big one for me. I was laser focused on the bigger picture but paid little attention to sub plot. While having an over arching well thought out plot is helpful, it can’t solve everything.

Don’t wait until the end of your book to realize sub pot is missing. Plan it now! Here’s a great post on writing sub plot that has helped me.

Draw up a map FIRST with the .

Don’t be like me and learn this the hard way.

I drew up a very rough map and then didn’t bother adding to it as I went. During the editing process I could never remember where anything was and had to constantly tracking down errors. What region was Helmnatri? Was that really a place? What was the name of that city that had the river running through it again? I thought the city they’re from was a dry hot place not cold…

In summary, lay the foundations of the house first. I know you’re eager to start writing the next New York Time’s best seller but be patient. Once you’re finished with your first draft and go back to edit, revise, rewrite and rewrite again, you’ll thank your younger self for the hard work you put in ahead of time.

Set the stage

Ever had someone take a quick pass at your first chapter and totally miss the genre? “What? This is sci-fi? I totally thought it was romance novel.” Womp. Womp. No one wants that.

Only you can prevent this from happening. Your first chapter is critical in setting the stage for what type of book it is.

Here’s a quick checklist of things you need to have answered in the first few pages:

Who’s the protagonist and what are they like? What’s their gender? Age?Why should the reader care about the protagonist? What’s their goal/motivation?Where is the story taking place?What’s the time period?What’s the tone? Is this light-hearted and funny? Suspenseful?

Did you answer those questions in your first few pages? Great! Now, let’s take a look at a few things not to do.

What not to do…

In your first few pages please spare the reader from:

Long clunky sentencesHeavy slang, dialect, or fantasy elementsInformation dumpDream sequencesFalse sense of suspense

I think those should all be pretty self-explanatory except perhaps the last two techniques.

Countless writer’s already use dream sequences and if your goal is to impress and stand out to your reader, you’ve already failed them with a dream sequence.

False suspense is never good and you shouldn’t be using it. What I mean by this, is withholding information that’s actually quite critical to understanding the story. Remember, you want to create FOMO, not an anxiety disorder.

Hopefully, these tips can help you as you work to craft a powerful start to your book.

Ultimately, remember to never give up on your dreams! Building a spaceship takes a long time.

But one day you’ll be able to fly.

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