Myth No. 3: You don’t know enough about the story to write it

Hi, writer!

This is a tricky one.

We’ll talk a lot in Write Your Novel about distinguishing between the writer and the editor and between busywork and writing.

As writers, we often enjoy the writing-adjacent activities more than we enjoy facing the blank page.

We can write outlines! We can do research! What a relief to do those things instead of writing!

E. L. Doctorow famously said that writing a novel is like driving at night: you can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.

Whether you’ve got your whole story mapped in your head, a detailed written outline, or no outline or ideas at all, Write Your Novel will show you how to keep your foot on the gas until your novel’s plot is fully developed.

Which is to say that if you’re spending as much or more time on writing-adjacent tasks than you are writing the sentences of your story, there might be something keeping you from writing that’s *not* about learning more or mapping out more of the story.

The blank page is really scary.

We fear making wrong turns. We fear writing something that sounds stupid. We fear our story isn’t good enough.

Research, outlining, and other writing-adjacent activities have their place. But they are the cart, not the horse. Research only enough to get your character in the room. Outline only enough to see into your headlights, to know your direction and aim there.

It’s scary not to know everything that happens next, but with the organizational suggestions in Write Your Novel, you’ll find ways to cope, like a) inserting TK any time you don’t know a word or detail, as a cue to return to it later so you can move forward; or b) devoting one out of three writing sessions to catch up on planning or research, to keep yourself on the writing track otherwise.

The 3 Mindset Myths are a starting point for rethinking your creative life form the ground up, giving up your preconceived notions (discipline! free time!) and finding ease in your relationship with your creative work.

Write Your Novel: Chapter 2 is all about continuing to demystify writing with 8 Mindset Essentials. Learn more, or join the community.

PS. Write Your Novel launches Oct 21, 2024. If you’re considering the program but aren’t sure if it’s a good fit for you, feel free to be in touch.

PPS. WYN is a new thing for me and there will be kinks to work out with the Write Your Novel community, so I’m offering 15% off to the first 25 writers who sign up. You can register now with the code MEFIRST to take advantage of this promotion, and start right away when it opens on Oct 21.