A False Victory or False Defeat?
Only time will tell
Hold on to your hats, folks! We are halfway through the month of living like a novelist.
Now, if we were defining a midpoint the way Save the Cat! Writes a Novel defines midpoint, I should be on my way to some serious progress…
MIDPOINT (50%): Literally the middle of the novel, where the Fun and Games culminates in either a false victory (the hero has thus far been succeeding) or a false defeat (the hero has thus far been floundering). Something should happen here to raise the stakes and push the hero toward real change.
…but the jury is still out on whether I’m currently in a false victory or a false defeat. Is it possible both can be true at the same time?1
On the one hand, I have (slowly) been writing and learning for my book and I’ve also been writing about writing. The other hand is still reaching for answers. Am I even close to being on the right track?
Where I stand 2 weeks into the process
To recap for our newbies (hi, welcome!), each month I am picking a different lifestyle to pursue. My goal is to build an interesting life and inspire others to do the same. For February, I am pretending to be a novelist 🤓 Here’s what I’ve learned so far:
Past a certain point, I have to stop strategizing and just start writing (more on that here)
I thought I would be a “morning writer” because I love mornings, I already do my journaling in the morning, and idk all the advice says you should. What’s surprising me the most is I actually get more writing done LATER in the day. By the time I finish journaling, I feel primed for the day and want to move about. Continuing to sit and write just hasn’t worked. If you’re struggling with your current writing schedule, consider switching to a different one and see if that helps. Ultimately, the best time to write is the time during which you actually put words on the page.
Another surprise: Siting at my table is my least favorite spot to type. I hand write at the table, so I assumed typing would work just the same. NOPE. I have had some of my best writing sessions propped up on my couch. It’s the same place I read so maybe that means something, maybe it doesn’t 🤷🏻♀️
I thought I would see a much larger change in how I spend my time. After all, I am supposed to be writing a book in my free time and channeling my inner author (I’m sort of picturing Ratatouille here but for writing). However, my life has stayed largely the same other than slowly making progress on the book idea I hadn’t touched in months. I’ll write for 5 minutes one day and maybe an hour the next. I think this is a really important lesson, though. We can define “novelist” multiple ways and slowly snowballing into one rather than changing everything overnight is way more productive than burning bright for two days, then crashing out.
The only way I can make true progress during a writing session is to constantly tell myself “don’t overthink it, it doesn’t have to be good yet.” Otherwise, I want to edit every line as I write. (Although, when I do write a stellar line, I am on top of the world)
I still have a lot of self-doubt. I wonder if I truly enjoy this and if this is something I’ll want to continue past February. I wonder if my approach to writing is at all reasonable. I wonder if I’m doing enough and putting in enough effort. However, I will not allow the negativity to win. At the end of the day, this is all one big experiment and I’ll find answers soon enough 💙 (like I said at the beginning of this post, it’s only been two weeks lol).
Would you do me the honor
If you’re currently writing or have written a novel, what’s your favorite part of the process?
If you haven’t written a novel but are thinking about it, what’s one thing you want to know about starting from scratch?
To be fair, I never defined “victory” or “success” before I started this little adventure. I’ll keep that in mind for next month, but honestly it’s mostly about finding fulfillment and being open to new experiences. I think success can show itself in many forms and defeat only matters if you quit trying.