Pretty much this. The perfect writer you want to be won't appear if you wait. Start now, and if you suck, suck for a bit, learn to hon your craft and eventually you'll get to the stage you want to be.
I'd say you should write that story NOW! As some have already pointed out, there's noting that says you can't write it, put it aside and proceed with something else and come back to it later when you've gained experience. Also, keep in mind that what you NOW perceive as The Best Story Of Your Writing Life ... it's possible that with a little more experience and when you've matured as a writer, you'll find it is not as sensational as you thought it was. I don't mean to discourage you, What I want to say is Ideas really are a dime a dozen. You will get other ideas that will seem equally special to you or even more so, if you keep writing. There's really no end to it. it's not like we have this one big idea over a lifetime as a writer and never get another one ever again. You'll realize that the mere act of writing will produce new ideas, better ideas. Maybe writing your inspirational idea will spark a new inspirational idea. So don't save it for later.
You can learn while you are writing, you know. You write, get critique, see where you come up short, study that aspect of writing, and repeat.
Exactly. Write now, don't wait. The first book you'll ever write might actually help you inspire a better book down the road. It's natural for new writers like you (OP) and me to look at our first book and think it's the Book that will make us the JK Rowling/Stephen King of this decade. It most likely won't. What it will do is provide us with experience on what and what not to do. And whose to say fun isn't allowed along the way, hmm??? And as touched on before, the beauty is that decades from now, you can look back at the very first thing you wrote and think, ‘Huh, let me see if I can improve it to publishing quality.’ Your stories never really die unless you really mean for them to die.
I disagree with people who say your first novel will never be any good, that it's just a learning experience, etc. I think that's short-sighted. I do agree that your first DRAFT ...or umpteenth draft ...is unlikely to be worth keeping as is. But if you believe in your basic story, and it's the story you've always wanted to write, there is no inbuilt reason it's going to be crap when you finally get done with it. What it will certainly need is editing, more editing, rewriting, even re-envisioning parts of it. Study up, and learn the tricks of the trade. Keep making changes to it, until it works, and works well. Develop a critical eye, get lots of quality feedback. Let it sit for a while until you can see it with fresh eyes, then get cracking on it again. Don't rush it, and don't give up till it IS the novel you always wanted to create. If your story idea is mature, there is no reason it can't end up being your best work, if you're willing to put in enough time and effort to get it right. It may be the only one you ever actually write.
It takes 7 years for Steven King to look at his old novels with fresh eyes. Just saying. I personally am not one to focus on rewriting. I write everything I want to begin with and have been adding quite a bit and even subtracting a bit from early chapters but overall my novel is what I expected it and want it to be. Yeah maybe after I get it edited and looked over I may want to fix it a little more but my book will never be perfect in my eyes so why force it. I just work on doing my best and personally I always do the best I can right as I am writing it.
Presumably, one is always going to write something they are interested in. The question is, of those potential novels, are some better suited for a first attempt at a novel than others? If you can only think of one novel, the answer is obvious. But for those of us with multiple ideas, is there some sort of selection rules (other than desire) we can use to help us choose the right one to start with?
For me it's a resounding yes. My dream work is a concept that needs characters, conflict, setting, so much stuff to be "created". The novel I have chosen to write first has more characters, conflict, settings and story arcs for me to drawn on -- based on real life events -- than I could possibly want or need. I will have too many to include all of them. So I can focus on story and writing it rather than having to come up with the fictional bits and pieces that go into making a story.
As usual there are a lot of good ideas and suggestions posted here along with the always true concept that each person is different so no one rule always applies. My work background is somewhat contradictory to writing it seems so I have an internal dilemma. I used to work for AT&T and their manufacturing and installation branch, WECO, used to post a sign at their work sites that said: "If you don't have time to do the job right the first time, when will you?" That really conflicts with the writing style of multiple edits. The concept of writing what I think maybe my best idea first, and then revisiting it at some future time to rewrite it with gained skill seems very unlikely. I do believe 9! post 37 rewords my question quite well with a different focus so I am interested in anyone's responses to it.
As with all novel ideas I think we should write the ones we feel most strongly about. The ones that makes us think of it all the time. If you're like me you'll have lots of ideas but only a few of them will give you that special feeling, it's almost like an obsession and I think that if one is supposed to finish a task as time consuming as writing a novel, that obsession is pretty much a must. For the time it takes me to write it, that story must be like all I can think about whenever I have a minute to spare. If I do not feel that obsession, it's not very likely that I will stick to it until it's completed. Especially when new and possibly more interesting ideas pop up. I have one idea like the one you're describing as well. It was my first attempt of a novel, I had been writing stories around it since I was 14. When I decided to try to write a full lenght novel I decided this one would be it. It was all I could think of. And I wrote it. Today it's sitting in the back of my computer. I've used the characters in other novels, I've readapted the story injecting new and fresh characters to make things different. I don't feel the time I spent writing it was wasted in any way. Plus, while writing it I got the idea to what would later become my first published novel. So as much as I liked that particular story, it's purpose was not turning me into a published author. It took years to abandon the idea that it would never be read by anyone else but my mom. But it was a necessary first step.
I actually put mine away for 6 years between the second draft and the later ones. It was the best thing I could have done. My second draft had been an improvement on the first but I ended up just tinkering with words, making changes one day, going back and changing those changes again the next, etc. I didn't have enough distance on it, and was ready to give up. Then life intervened, and I was unable to spend the time on it that I wanted to, so I just put it aside. Six years later, I picked it up again. During that 6-year period I'd read umpteen books on the craft of writing, which really helped me see where I'd gone wrong. After six years, I was able to dump whole sections and chapters that did not move the story forward. I was able to completely revamp a couple of characters to make them more believable. I was able to strengthen some weak transitions, write an opening chapter that did what the original one didn't. I tweaked points I'd made, to focus the reader's attention more strongly on the right things. The basic story stayed the same, but I even swapped points of view in a couple of chapters, so we watched events unfold through the eyes of a different POV character. The trick is to be able to see your mistakes. If you just dump one bad novel (your first) and start writing another novel without understanding what made the first one bad, you're going to keep repeating your mistakes. You need to understand where you're going wrong. That's the key. If your original story idea is fine, but you executed it badly in your first attempt, then go back and change it so it does work. In other words, if you still believe in your first story, stick with it till you get it right.
I always try and look back on my mistakes, hell that's why I'm stalling my 11th chapter and beyond. I know what I want but I feel like the event coming up is just a recreation of a past event. Hell I looked back on an older chapter where the MC meets the SC for the first time and has to save her life so that he can later kill her (but he refuses). The problem with that chapter is that she got caught 3 times the same way. So I took out the middle one and rewrote the first one completely. I also noticed some tense problems in my last few chapters (like 8-10). Now I am waiting to figure out how to rewrite this upcoming event so it's not just a copy. But again, I find no real reason to try rewriting the whole thing into a second, third, and so on drafts if you pay enough attention to the first one and give it enough love. I may sound a bit full of myself and by no means to I think I am great, but I try my best the first time around and know a lot about writing and am always learning new things. I am a good writer enough to make a good book but I am in no means the great writer I really wish to be. I do my best when I am doing it. My view is that I will never be that "Great writer" I wish to be, even if I get there, I will always think of better writers to compare myself with and always think I can do things better. But if I don't try my damnedest at it right now then I won't get anywhere. So I work my butt off and learn and research as much as I can so that I can make a good book. Because if you wait 6 years to write your first novel then what do you have? [No offence intended. I just have never liked the idea of taking so long on one novel.]
Oh, I can certainly understand why people shy away from waiting 6 years between drafts! Sometimes I wish I'd tried getting back to mine a bit sooner (circumstances prevented it.) However, my point is not that you should wait 6 years between drafts, but that you need to learn where you made mistakes. If you don't see where you went wrong, you won't improve very quickly either. However long it takes, you need to focus on WHY an earlier book is bad. Then you either ditch it and move on to a new story, or work to improve the original one. Without insight, you are unlikely to progress. You'll just end up with a few more bad first drafts! I think the trick for me was two-fold. The 6-year wait did give me fresh eyes (although next time I hope this process doesn't take quite that long. ) However, it was the reading of creative writing books that taught me tricks of the trade, and helped me spot my mistakes, and then to correct them. Again, the trick is to understand your mistakes—not just write more books. The thread we're on is dealing with whether or not your first book can be a keeper. I say yes, it can ...with insight and hard work, and a willingness to correct newbie mistakes.
Yeah. I think with enough hard work your first novel can and should be a keeper and instead of (like I hear many people on here saying) keeping it hidden away and focusing on something else they should try and get it published, because if you're going to hide your first work in a drawer some where then what was the point in writing it? The good thing about me is I am a quick learner. I always have been, never had to try when playing the piano (My piano teacher always told me I was very good but I should actually practice because I would get even better [Never practiced because I personally never liked the piano]), Math always came quickly and easily as well as Tae-Kwon-Do (I believe that's how it's spelled). And whilst I wrote the first 10 chapters of my book it all seemed well written and then after a month I looked back at it and noticed quite a few things (As I said, the "Caught 3 times" thing as well as the tense problems I had with writing it. And noticed my next event needs to be written differently).
It is very comforting to realize I have this option. It is disheartening to read what I wrote and set aside even as long as a year ago and still not be distanced from it. How great it would be if we could erase the memory of writing a passage so we could then read it with truly fresh eyes. I guess waiting 6+ years is the next best thing? Not like the ideas are going anywhere in that time. I wonder what the general quality of books would be like if every author did this.
I'm not sure. Again, I think it boils down to the quality of the original idea. If you think ...nah, that idea doesn't appeal to me any more, fair enough. Let it go. But if you still love the idea of your story, but can't seem to get it 'right,' then it's worth putting it aside, learning more about writing, and then going back to it. As long as your heart is still in it, you can make it work.
My first novel, written around 1989, was inspiring to write, but a real downer to read afterwards. It sounded like it was written by a teenager and I was in my mid-thirties at the time. But I'm not saying everyone will go through this, just that if you do, don't let it stop you from carrying on with writing a second or even third novel.
My first draft sounded like it was written by a ditsy maiden aunt, dithering to a 10-year-0ld ...but I still believed in the story. So I pared away the ditsy aunt, adultified the tone ...and now I've got something I'm proud of. If you dislike the actual story when you read it later on, then do walk away. But if you just don't like the way it sounds, you can work on that aspect of your writing, and still keep the story.
One problem with a long wait could be that things change over time and something you have written is no longer correct. I want to write sci-fi and it would be easy to have written a reference to Pluto as a planet a couple of years ago, now its status has changed and that reference would stick out as a bad research issue. That example would be an easy one to catch but other similar things might not be so easy to notice.
Write what inspires you. If it sucks, it sucks (your first draft of anything WILL suck. Guaranteed). If you're not excited, you won't write, so go ahead and take on the big idea. I'm doing that for my first novel - it creates extra work and problems - and I'm doing it anyway because this is the story I want to tell. If it ends up sucking because it's my first novel, I'll probably revise the living heck out of it as I gain skill, because the story is that important to me.
