So, stop worrying about whether you’re good enough to write the novel you want toīut–and this is the real point of this section, so remember this well, please–you will They weren’t already experts in child-rearing! Humanity would cease to exist. Imagine if people didn’t have children because They might not have become a parent at all.īut that didn’t stop them from doing it. No parent has ever known ahead of time what they were in for. Like all parents, they had no idea what they were doing at first. I was the oldest of three children, so I got to hear my Whether you have children or not, noĭoubt you’ve heard new parents say that they often feel as if they’re flying blind, making Skills will be redundant, because the book will be done, and it will be time to move on to And you’re not going to have masteredĪll the skills you need to tell this story until you’ve told it–at which point, of course, your You’re going to have to do until you’ve done it. This isĪnother of the contradictions inherent in the writing life. Literary equivalent of a combat soldier’s thousand-yard stare.īut just how this is all going to happen is impossible to tell ahead of time. Provided you stick with it, you will feel different.
You’re going to walk with a limp afterwards.
Or saying goodbye to a loved one, writing a novel is a big deal. Just like getting married, buying a house, having a child, getting a new job, Telling it is going to be transformational. You than you realized, and it might even ask more of you than you think you have to Story is yours doesn’t mean you are the master of it. Yet here’s a contradiction, the first of many that I will present to you: just because this And only you can write Aįarewell To Penguins, or Penguin Lust on the High Seas, or whatever you’re going to You’re the ten thousandth person this year to write a novel about penguins, your bookĪbout penguins is going to be different, because it’s yours. Knowledge of language, and an artistic or engaging way of telling a story. You can know in a general way what it will need: time, patience, effort, a working It’s a life event, and like all life events, it’s not going to go the way you planned it. House, or weeding a garden, or some other job that has an obvious shape and a clearĮnd. Writing a book is not a clearly defined task. It’s in the course of writing your story that you will pick up all the skills you need to Only need to be invented once–but you cannot begin to know what they are until youĪre fully immersed, and you won’t know all of them until you are finished. That means the precise rules for telling it Why am I saying such a contradictory thing?īecause nothing quite like your story has ever existed before in the history of the world,Īnd nothing like it will ever be written again. So, when?Īs soon as you’ve typed the last word of the last draft of your manuscript, you will be If you’ve never written a bookīefore, then you’re not good enough yet to write one–but you will be. Sweeping judgment about someone I’ve never even met? What? How dare I say that? Don’t I recognize that you’re as perfect as a snowflake?Īm I really so arrogant that I believe I can see through time and space and make such a Meet our new monthly columnist, award-winning author William Kowalski! This article is reprinted with permission from the book: WRITING FOR FIRST-TIME NOVELISTS, Practical Thoughts on the Creative Craft, by William Kowalski © 2014 BEFORE YOU STARTĪm I a good enough writer to write a book?
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