Wrriting Novels: Talent, Luck, and Discipline

I was leafing through my 2003 Novel and Short Story Writer's Market (which I'll be updating soon) and came across this quote from Michael Chabon:

"I like to say there are three things that are required for success as a writer: talent, luck, discipline. It can be in any combination, but there's nothing you can do to influence the first two. Discipline is the one element of those three things that you can control, and so that is the one that you have to focus on controlling. You just have to hope and trust in the other two."

This is so true and it gives those of us who may worry about our talent (am I good enough?) or question our luck (why is everyone against me!) Discipline also applies to many other areas. The discipline to write every day, to market your work, to remain focused on one task at a time. I wrestle with these on most days. It’s so easy while writing a novel to jump back and forth to other projects. For one, the novel takes so long and when you’re in the thick of it, you don’t see much progress, let alone an end in sight. Whereas an essay or a short story or even a blog post such as this, can be written fairly quickly. Finally, I finished something!

Many writers equate writing the novel to marriage, and short stories to the occasional fling or a one night stand. The temptation is always there (the grass is always greener on the other side…). But if you ever hope to succeed in completing, let alone selling your novel, it’s important to get back to the novel, if that is where your true heart lies, and not be tempted by all the other sideshows, too, whether it’s Facebook, twitter, blogs or email. All of these chew up your novel writing time.

Now and then, after you’ve locked in a couple of hours, you can reward yourself with a writing timeout to check all of the above. You’ve earned it. But keep it brief and then get back to your novel. If you don’t, you can kiss that sweet novel goodbye. Whatever urgency or excitement or enthusiasm you first had to get it going, will soon be gone. Out of sight, out of mind. Without that day in and day out discipline, your novel will never get written (and rewritten), let alone published and in the bookstores.

It also takes discipline to find that perfect balance for writing, for family and friends, and for living. Don’t play the martyr. Get your novel written but get a life, too!

*Update: I managed to turn that discipline into some luck, too. The Resurrection of Jonathan Brady just advanced to the Quarterfinals of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award 2012!  It was all those rewrites in 2010, 2011, and 2012 that got me there.

Here are links to some of my author-to-author interviews of first novelists:

Ivy Ngeow author of Cry of the Flying Rhino, winner of the 2016 Proverse Prize.

Golda Mowe author of Iban Dream and Iban Journey.

Preeta Samarasan author of Evening is the Whole Day. 

Chuah Guat Eng,  author of Echoes of Silence and Days of Change. 

Plus:

Five part Maugham and Me series

Beheaded on Road to Nationhood: Sarawak Reclaimed—Part I 

The Art of Finishing: Write for Yourself First

I just finished the first draft of a new screenplay, about 130 pages long. It’s always nice when you finish something. Finish, by the way, is a relative term. For writers, the key word/s is first draft. Until that first draft is completed what you have is an uncompleted piece of work. Once that first draft is done, now you can really get down to work because you have some­thing to work on. Then draft after draft of rewriting, revising, rearranging you can take your story closer to finishing a final draft.

Chances are, though, this will merely be the first final draft. Later, after the newness has worn off, after there’s been a cooling off period, after it failed to create the huge impact on the world as you had hoped, you’ll take another look at it. Hopefully, you’ve got some feedback along the way, so now you can see it with fresh eyes and start rewriting, revising, rearranging. You may add more stuff, delete some stuff, change the title, change some character’s names or make it clearer what drives them, perhaps by adding some back story or adding a new scene to dramatize some action that solidifies their character. You may rewrite the beginning a dozen more times, or the ending, too, while you’re add it, to create the desired effect.

Of course this all comes later, but first you must actually finish that first draft! Whether it’s an article, short story, screenplay, novel makes no difference. Finishing is finishing.

How do you finish anything? It’s a lot like, how do you save money? Pay yourself first –that’s what I always hear and it seems to be working! Before you spend any money or pay any bills, put part of your income (starting small if necessary) into the bank or into some safe investment. You do this automatically. To make sure it actually gets done, have it automatically deducted from your paycheck!

Unfortunately, when it comes to writing, you can’t automatically write your novel, but you can use the same principle, write for yourself first. Instead of writing for everyone else, which includes replying emails, blog comments, and checking out everyone else’s blogs and adding your own replies, and then cruising the Internet to see what everyone else on the planet is doing, you commit your time – maybe your first one or two hours to what you want to write (and want to finish).

Once you get that first hour in under your belt, you may want to keep on writing. Momentum is everything! And that’s great! Use it! If you need a quick break, or really do need to catch up on your emails and blog comments, then by all means do that, but please make it quick, or the four hours you had planned to write that Sunday afternoon will quickly evaporate.

Like saving money, writing comes down to discipline, but if you make a commitment to yourself, to the writer you wish to become, to the author of the books you wish to write, and if you stick to your plan (and don’t take a quick peek at your email before that first hour or two of writing is done) you may actually get something written.

Because if you do take a quick peek at your inbox (all of them!), you may think, I can clear a few of these in a couple of minutes (and while you’re at it a few more, and few more – a few minutes add up to a few hours, by the way) or you just may stumble upon an interesting, ongoing saga/problem/miscommunication from a dear (or even a long lost) friend. In comparison, even when sorting out a potential email headache, this may seem a lot more interesting than staring at that blank screen to write what you really want to write but lack in discipline to start, let along seeing it through until that first draft gets completed.

I’ve been there, done that, in both squandering precious writing time (I only had two hours to write and it all went to email - which prompted this blog!) or the other extreme of ignoring emails until they balloon to 200. Yeah, I feel really guilty about taking weeks to reply friends, but feel really good because I’ve taken a back burner project from a year ago (my screenplay idea), to seeing it completed, even if it’s merely a first draft. Feels great!

First drafts, no matter how crappy they really are, are, in fact, great! Finally, you got it done! You took it that far, too, and by applying the same discipline of writing for yourself first each day (or each writing opportunity), you’ll soon have a second draft, a third draft. Then it’ll be ready to be sent out into the world. Sure it may come right back, but that’s writing, and as a writer you keep at it until you do get it right and that’s how articles, short stories, screenplays, and books get written and published.

So always write for yourself first! While you’re at it, save some of money, too. You may need it to celebrate that breakthrough sale that sets you on your way to publishing success. Good luck.

Here are links to some of my author-to-author interviews of first novelists:

Ivy Ngeow author of Cry of the Flying Rhino, winner of the 2016 Proverse Prize.

Golda Mowe author of Iban Dream and Iban Journey.

Preeta Samarasan author of Evening is the Whole Day. 

Chuah Guat Eng,  author of Echoes of Silence and Days of Change. 

Plus:

Five part Maugham and Me series

Beheaded on Road to Nationhood: Sarawak Reclaimed—Part I