I confess, the idea behind this came from a writing class I took with the wonderful Michele Ferrari, and when she shared it with us, it hit me particularly hard (in a good way).

Very broadly, we probably consider our works-in-progress in one of two ways

As work, a project that we have committed ourselves to and are determined to see across the finish line because of that commitment

A hobby, a creative pastime, something that we’re doing for the joy of itMaybe it’s just me, but before Michele shared this idea, I had never thought about the fact that I was in a relationship with my novel. And like any relationship, there would be ups-and-downs. It would need to be cultivated, nurtured. I would love it, I would hate it.

This takes me back, all the way to 2018, when I had what I was sure was the final iteration of my outline. 🤣🤣🤣 To paraphrase Leslie Knope: Kerry, you beautiful tropical fish.

No one gets it 100% right the first time. Writing a novel is a process, not an event.

What I really had, I know now, was a bunch of plot points. Their only connection was that they tracked the events of my protagonist’s life. There was no real meaning, nothing juicy–just the dreaded ‘and then this happened’. And, friends, I wrote 145K words worth of ‘and this this happened’. Blerg.

Have you (or anyone you know) ever said this? “Yes, I’ve written (or am writing) a book, but I’m not a real writer.”

Bullshit. Friends, this makes me mad. If you have a writer friend who says this, please, gently and with compassion, tell them they are full of it. If you say, or even think this about yourself, please STOP.

I know I’m the one who is supposed to dispense advice around here, but I’d love to hear how you balance your writing time with all the other demands of life. Some weeks, despite my best planning and intentions, it just doesn’t come together.

As my friend and fellow book coach Terri Thayer has said to me, we do this by choice. We all sit down to write knowing that at times we’re torturing ourselves. I remind myself that I could be doing other things. And sometimes I choose to do those other things, and that is okay.

How goes it, writerly friends? Things around here have been, shall we say, tricky? Perhaps you’ll be able to relate.

In the not-so-distant past, I came at you with advice on how to create and stick to a plan to make it to your next writing milestone. I shared how I structured my own plan to make it through my final major revision.

And then I hit a wall.

What happened? As is usually the case, it wasn’t one specific thing, it was several.

Writing interesting characters that grab your readers from page 1 and keep them riveted to your story is easier said than done. We all know it’s important and we’ve all probably gotten the feedback that your character ‘just wasn’t connecting’ or ‘felt flat, two dimensional’.

Ugh, right? It could be entirely valid feedback—but what do you do with that? How do you solve it?

Frankly, when I started writing my novel, I figured I was halfway to home from the start. When someone asked me what my book was about, I’d say, “It’s about a female pirate in the 1700s…” and it didn’t really matter what I said after that. “Awesome! That’s so cool!” If I could sell everyone who said that a copy of my (still in progress) book, I’d have a guaranteed best-seller on my hands.

I am a firm believer in what I tell my clients about writing a novel: It takes as long as it takes, and you’re on nobody’s schedule but your own.

That said, I’ve been living with my protagonist and her adventures for more than 6 years now, and I’m ready to let her set sail. (Haha, she’s a pirate–see what I did there? Okay, sorry.) I spent most of last year’s creative energy rediscovering my ‘why’ and iterating on my Inside Outline. It’s time to re-start and revise.

Whether you’re germinating a new idea or revising for the nth time, there are some concrete steps that you can take to solidify your commitment to your creative self and your novel.

Fun stuff from me to you!

One of the things I think is most critical to writing a successful novel is planning–and part of that is knowing your ‘why’? (You can download a free guide complete with exercises to help you figure that out if you sign up for my newsletter!)

And so I thought it would be appropriate to talk about some of my why’s: how knowing why I wanted to write my novel helped me take it to the next level and why book coaching felt like such a good fit for me.

In which Kerry makes her case for how spending some time thinking about your book can save you time and make your drafting process simpler and more efficient, while also freeing you creatively!

My name is Kerry. I’m a writer, project manager, and Author Accelerator certified book coach. My intention with this space is to share wins, fails, lessons, and wisdom learned over a lifetime of reading and writing, more than a decade of project management, and now into year two of my book coaching career.