Today I want to tell you a little story that will help you to learn from my mistake. 

I did tell you at the beginning of the series that although my clients are all writing non-fiction, I also write fiction. At the end of November, there is an event that takes place worldwide in many different cities called “‎NaNoWriMo,” which stands for National Novel Writing Month. And the idea is that, during the month of November, groups of people get together in different cities and they write together, and the goal is to write the first draft of a 50,000-word novel during the month of November. It’s pretty crazy, actually, but I decided to try it.

The problem was, I didn’t know about ‎”NaNoWriMo” until a couple of days before it started, so I had no chance to plan what I was going to write, to plan my story, exept that I wanted to write a murder mystery. 

So I started with the rest of the group and I worked on it for the whole month of November. And sure enough, I finished my 50,000 words — but they weren’t very good words! And the fact is that when I went through it to start thinking about the next phase, I saw there were holes in the plot that you could drive a truck through, and I had no idea how to sort it. That was two years ago, and the novel is still sitting there in the drawer in the same state because I have no idea how to fix it.

The problem was, I started writing without any plan. And that is what happens to many new writers, who think, “Well, I know the subject matter. This is my area. I know how to do it. I’ll just sit there and I’ll write the book.” And they basically sit down and they start writing without a plan. That is like setting off on a journey to a place where you have never been without a map. It will result in lots of false turns and lots of starting over again and lots of frustration. It was a very frustrating exercise for me, although I’m determined to finish that novel one day.

But don’t do the same thing as I did. Respect the process. That’s one of the reasons why you are following this series, because I am going through the process with you. I’ve already done some of that, but some of these videos are going to be focusing on individual steps in the process so that you won’t get stuck in the weeds the way I did.

Okay, no homework this week, just don’t be starting any novel or any book you haven’t planned! 

Happy writing, and I’ll talk to you next week.