Three Things Writers Should Do When They Start

“If I’m just getting started with writing, what are some things I should focus on?”

“What are some of the things I should avoid doing if I actually want to finish my book?”

I've heard questions like this asked before and I’m going to share the three things to focus on if you’re a brand new writer. 

Focus Area #1: Mindset

The very first thing I want you to focus on is your mindset. And the reason I say this is because believe that mindset is one of the biggest things that can prevent someone from finishing their novel. 

So, before you start writing any new novel, whether it’s your first or your third, you need to have the right mindset going into the process. And what do I mean by the “right” mindset? Well, two things really… 

First, you need to understand that your first draft is not going to be perfect. No matter how much time you spend thinking about your story, outlining your story, or re-writing those first few pages, it’s never going to equal a perfect first draft. 

I remember writing my first book about 20 years ago at this point and I thought: "wow, this is amazing, I'm going to be famous because of this" without thinking that this first draft was likely going to be full of plot holes, inconsistencies, and various errors that later edits took care of. I sent it off to agents and those that got back to me collectively said "first drafts need a little polish". It was horrible but it didn't let it keep me down.

And I know why we have these kinds of expectations—most writers are also readers. And the books we read are very often really, really good. But they turn out this way because they’ve been through multiple drafts, multiple rounds of revisions, and the author has no doubt had feedback from outside sources during at least one point in the process. But we don’t always think about all of that, right? We just see the final product, and then we set out to write a story that looks like the books we read. And that’s not realistic. Eventually, our stories can get there, I promise—but not at first. That’s just the way it goes. So, what is a more healthy mindset? What would I recommend?

The real purpose of your first draft is to discover your story—it’s to discover your characters, your story world, what’s actually going to happen in the plot, the theme or takeaway you want to leave readers with—all of that. Go into your first draft with the goal of discovering your story, and let the process be fun. Because guess what? Writing can actually be fun if you take some of the pressure off yourself, and if you don’t expect yourself to write the perfect first draft.  

Focus Area #2: Genre

The second thing I’d like you to focus on is your story’s genre. This is a big problem I face when reading shorts for an anthology but it's something a writer should consider and there is a phrase I'd like to share: Think about genres in two different ways—commercial genres and content genres. 

Commercial genres are sales categories that dictate where your book is placed in a bookstore or how it’s sold online. We can consider something like Young Adult Fiction. That would be a section in a bookstore or online, right? But if you set out to write a Young Adult story, what kind of story would you be writing? A YA romance? A YA mystery? A YA thriller? A YA action story set in a fantasy world? It would be really hard to write a Young Adult novel if you don’t know what kind of story you’re actually telling.

And this is where content genres come in. Content genres, such as my own favorite, tell writers what type of content needs to be in a story to satisfy readers of a particular genre. So, in other words, they provide an entire framework that will help you craft a story that works.  

Your content genre can tell you: 

• The type of goal your protagonist will pursue from start to finish
• What’s at stake if your protagonist accomplishes this goal or not
• Some of the key scenes and character roles you need to include 
• The main emotion readers are expecting to feel or experience
• And even the general theme or topic your story explores

And that’s a lot of stuff, right? This is why genre is such an important thing to focus on for new writers—it can honestly take so much overwhelm out of the writing process, and in my opinion, it’s an under-utilized and under-appreciated tool. 

So, if you’re just starting out, or even if you’re starting a brand new story, figure out the type of story you want to write. What is your story’s content genre? And then use that as the framework to craft your story within.  And if a publisher is seeking a specific genre, save everyone the headache of erroneously submitting.

Focus Area #3: Scenes

The third thing I’d like you to focus on is learning how to craft a scene. This is another thing that I think we don’t talk enough about in the writing community—and it’s such an important topic! 

Each scene, roughly every 1,500 words, needs a beginning, middle, and end; and your character needs to have a goal. They also need the agency to pursue that goal. All of these things are also required to write a story. So, if you can execute all of this on the micro-scene level, you will be much better equipped to tackle them on the global story level.

But beyond practicing writing scenes that work in your own draft, I recommend studying scenes in published novels. So, think about your favorite book, and then think about a few memorable scenes from that book. Go look for the scene structure in those scenes, and pick them apart to figure out what made you like them so much. This exercise will be so invaluable to you.

And the more you study scenes that work, the better you’ll become at identifying the structural elements and the craft elements that make them work. It took a lot of practice when I did this originally, but now, it doesn’t always feel so hard—and it’s almost something we just do instinctually. So, the same thing can and will happen for you if you just dig in and start breaking scenes down one by one. 

So, that is the third key area I would focus on if I was just starting out. And, no matter how experienced a writer you are, I think mastering the art of writing a scene is very important. 

Final Thoughts

So, that wraps up the three main areas I would focus on if I was a brand new writer—or if I was coaching a brand new writer, as an editor. Remember that your first draft won't be perfect, know what genre you're writing and write accordingly, and craft good scenes that contribute to an equally good story. Writing can be fun and rewarding if you put the effort in.

Remember that I am a professional editor and look publisher, and I'm here to help take your writing to the next level.