Writing a book can be hard. Sometimes the words do not fluently flow onto the paper in ways that you think they should, or you don't know where the story is going, or any number of issues like that. So here's what helped me finish the first draft of my first book!
1. Quantity Over Quality
When you're writing the first draft... Forget quality. It's not gonna be perfect, that's why we have this thing called the editing stage. Again, FORGET QUALITY. Just get words in a semi-coherent form onto paper until you reach the end of your story. Okay? You can edit the thing once you've got something on the paper, but you're at step one the longer you don't.
Here are some more reasons to forget quality... The majority of the time when writing, you might change something somewhere, and have to go rewrite that thing. You might find that that scene is unnecessary and just delete it. Chances are good though that something's gonna happen and you're going to end up deleting or rewriting something... (If you don't, that means you haven't improved, so yeah.)
2. Don't Touch It
Don't edit until you reach the end... Seriously. For some people, they get sucked into the endless pit of editing to perfection (in your eyes it's never gonna perfect, that's the truth of it!) and that is an amazing way to feel discouraged and give up writing.
And what I said in #1 holds true here as well: Things change. You're most likely going to cut something out or have to redo it, and that's gonna be painful if you spent hours or days editing! Leave it be until you get to the editing stage!
3. Trust Whoever Reads That...
Especially on the first book, your self-confidence can a touchy thing. Don't hand off your partly written thing to someone who doesn't like the genre, or has a reputation of being blunt to the point of hurting people, or an unsupportive friend. Having someone read your book before it's published is a great idea, but don't hand it to someone who's gonna tear you down.
Constructive criticism is a useful tool, but if it doesn't come in a kind form, it can be painful. So for that first book especially, protect your feelings and love for it by being careful who it let read it.
4. Take A Break
Until you're a professional writer making their living off writing books, it's perfectly fine if you take a break. Even a long break. Everyone always makes a big deal about consistency and dedication, writing every single day without a fail, all that stuff. But seriously, if you need a break, taking a break is okay. If you're anything like me, you'll be thinking about the book a lot over your break anyway, and might even gain some great insights or ideas that might not have happened had you been forcing yourself to write. Within a few days, you should feel refreshed and ready to get going again! (Writer's block? Here's how to deal with that.)
5. That Spark Isn't Always Gonna Be There
You know that excitement you get when you have this awesome idea, that inspiration, and you can't wait to get started? Yeah, it's gonna ditch you. That inspiration and excitement aren't always gonna be there, and when it goes away, you've still gotta write. You can't just quit writing until you feel motivated and expect to get the book written in a timely manner. The good news is, the spark almost always comes back! It's not always there, but it consistently comes to visit.6. Writing Tools
I have a whole post about writing tools, all of which should be free because I'm stingy and broke. From what to use to write, to improving your work, to finding inspiration, you should find what you need! Read the post Here.
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