Writing a novel isn’t for everyone. Yes, everyone should get the chance and the information to do it – that’s why I write this blog – but does writing suit everyone? Not at all.
Writing a novel is more than just putting enough words on the page and calling it a day. First of all, not everyone has what it takes to write a great story. Just because you made it up doesn’t mean anyone will want to read it. But also, writing an entire novel from start to finish is a big project and not everyone wants to do the work.
So in this post, we’ll talk about which camp you fall into. Should you write a novel? And exactly how to know if you should write a book?
Related reading: Should you write that story? – Signs you shouldn’t write a book – How to write a novel with no experience – Should you write a book or a blog?
Don’t make this book-writing mistake
Reading a book is easy: you just start from page 1 and read until it’s finished. Done. Writing a book, however, is a very different thing. There’s a lot of planning and going back and forth, and you can’t just do it once and then expect your work to be over.
First of all, you need enough material for a full novel. Sometimes even the coolest idea might have enough material in it for a couple of interesting scenes unless you know how to explore it from all angles and mine it for more story elements and plot events.
And also, a novel needs a plot. A plot is a series of events that are connected to each other through cause and effect. Something needs to put the events in motion and there needs to be some kind of an outcome. That’s why you can’t just write some random stuff for 250 pages and call it a novel, no matter how well-written all that random stuff is.
What to do instead
I know it’s tempting to start writing something straight away when you feel like you’ve got a GREAT idea, but if you’ve never written a novel before, I really don’t recommend jumping into the deep end straight away.
Even if you were all “ewww outlining!”, you need to know, at the very least, if your story has enough material in it for a beginning, a middle and an end. You could avoid a slogging middle or wanting to rush to the events you actually want to write if you bothered to plan your story first with some understanding of story structure and how plots work.
This blog post gives you different methods of outlining that you can use together or separately, but first I’d recommend learning about story structure. You don’t need to stumble blindly in the dark when you understand how stories actually work.
If you’d just like to get on the expressway of planning your novel, you should get your paws on the Genius Plotting System. If you’ve ever got excited about your story idea and written a few juicy scenes just to hit a wall… these plotting tools will fix all that. You’ll create a plot that matters instead of a string of random events.
Signs you should write a book
Now you know what mistakes not to make, but how do you know whether you actually should write a novel? There might be some signs.
Has writing always been easy for you?
Want to know when I struggled with writing the most? Before I was 5, when I didn’t know how to write. Putting the words on the page has never been a struggle for me and I’ve always been good at making stuff up. (I’m also a terrific liar and I’d make a great con artist, but I’ve decided to use my powers for good purposes. Mostly.)
Professional writers have always gravitated towards writing somehow. Maybe you never thought that writing novels was a viable career choice for you, but you like writing lengthy Facebook updates about things you’ve encountered or you’re the go-to person at your work when something even remotely creative needs to be written. Maybe you excelled at written assignments at school or your diaries are always full.
Mind you, if you’ve always struggled with grammar or punctuation or if you’ve got dyslexia, that’s totally irrelevant here. The meaning of writing is far more than just technical details or making it “perfect”, so if you find it easy to put all your imperfect words and sentences on the page, that’s enough.
Do other people compliment your writing?
People have always complimented me on my writing even in contexts where I wasn’t exactly trying to outwrite Shakespeare. I don’t excel at all kinds of writing – for example copywriting remains a mystery to me and I’m way too silly to be a serious technical writer – but I’ve never had to doubt whether I’m “good” at it. Some people are athletic, some are good with numbers, and I’m a friend of words.
If you’ve got similar experiences, writing a novel might not be such a terrible idea.
Talent will only get you so far, however, so don’t think this is all you need. Being naturally “good at writing” is good, but you also need storytelling skills and you can’t fool yourself into thinking there’s no room for improvement. Don’t think you’re above constructive criticism and helpful feedback!
Are you a born storyteller?
I already gave you a little clue about this, but “good writing” and “good storytelling” are actually separate skills. Cool, right? In an ideal world you’d master both, but they don’t always go hand in hand.
Maybe you’re really good at telling stories and you know exactly how to keep people listening to you, or you’ve got a flair for dramatic effect and surprising twists, but you’ve never put any of this in writing or you’ve never considered writing an entire book. Maybe you don’t even consider yourself as someone whose writing is good.
Here’s the thing, though: editors can make your writing better but there’s no replacement for a great story. Even if you don’t think your writing is much anything to write home about (heh) but your stories are epic, with a little practice and outside help, you could still write a great novel.
You can’t replace a great story with beautiful writing. The market for wonderful sentences that make up boring and meaningless stories is basically nonexistent, so be grateful for your storytelling skills even if you feel insecure about your writing.
Do you have a story that simply NEEDS to be told?
One sure sign that you should write a book is that you feel like you HAVE TO do it. There’s a story within you and it needs to get out, you need to share it with the world.
We don’t need more meh stories in this world or impersonal, cookie-cutter premises. We need stories that resonate. If you feel absolutely compelled to tell a specific story, chances are that someone’s been waiting their whole life to read it. You should make it happen.
Are you willing to accept critique and improve as a writer?
You are not perfect, and even if you were (impossible), people would still have opinions that you might not like to hear. Will that put you off from writing? Then you probably shouldn’t write.
I thoroughly disagree with the notion that you can’t say this or that to people because it might stop them from writing. If your will to write isn’t stronger than someone’s comments, then you didn’t have much will to begin with and you definitely don’t have what it takes to be a published author. If you can stand to do something else besides writing, you probably should do that instead.
Whenever someone says something upsetting about your writing, you have two options: Either it’s true, in which case you can make improvements if they’re in line with your own goals. If a crime fiction fan reads your romance novel and says there’s too much kissing, it might be true for them but it’s not applicable to you and your goals. If a romance fan says your sex scenes were boring and clinical, that’s someone you’ll want to listen to.
The second option is that what they’re saying is not true, in which case you’re free to carry on as you are and move on with your life. Any sweeping statements like “You will never make it as a writer” or “Nobody will want to read this” generally aren’t true because nobody has a crystal ball and they can’t predict what every single reader in the world thinks. And sometimes people are just mean, even if not everything that hurts you is actually mean.
Which is more important, writing great novels or never hearing anything that might upset you? The only way to shield yourself from critique is to never attempt to create anything, ever. Easy. You’re welcome.
You also need to edit your writing
Your first draft is not going to be a masterpiece. This isn’t me judging you or saying you suck – it’s just a fact. Editing is an integral part of the writing process and it’s always going to take much longer than writing the first draft.
All the traditionally published books you’ve ever read have gone through multiple rounds of edits and have been worked on by multiple people. There are no first drafts at the bookstore. If you’re not willing to accept that, you’re more than welcome to write for your own amusement, but your writing isn’t going to be great and you’re definitely not ready to pursue publishing.
Not knowing how to improve your writing or what to even improve is not a reason to skip it, you’ll simply need to learn how to do it. Here’s an easy-to-follow process for editing your novel without getting lost or overwhelmed that you’re more than welcome to follow!
Because really, if you can’t see the difference between your first draft and a professionally written, finished novel, you clearly don’t know enough about good writing to be a good judge of it. I’m sure most people reading this don’t need to hear this, but there’s always someone who thinks you can just write something once and it’ll turn out great, and I want to help those people make good choices.
Do you want to write a book or do you just want to say you’ve written a book?
You can’t just “be a writer”, you need to “be writing”. And that’s work. It might be my favourite kind of work, but it doesn’t mean it isn’t work.
A lot of people like the idea of being a writer. They think about how nice it would be to have written a book and they go on Instagram to share memes about how writers aren’t actually writing, but the truth is that they’re not writers if they’re not writing. Thinking it’s a nice idea isn’t enough.
Then there are the people who don’t actually know anything about storytelling and good writing and who think they can “write” a “novel” with artificial intelligence. They think they can just reap the benefits of having 200+ pages of writing under their name with zero consideration for what people actually want to read or whether novels actually are more than just pages with words on them.
If you don’t want to WRITE a book, then don’t write a book. It’s as simple as that. Who would bother reading something you didn’t even bother writing? And what are you going to do with the time it supposedly saves you, scroll TikTok and buy stuff? Yeah, sounds like a great use of your time.
Seriously, what is your life for if not for doing and learning stuff? If you don’t want to write, then don’t. Do something else. You’re free.
Should you share your book with the world?
You don’t have to have lofty publishing goals in order to write a novel. You can write for your own pleasure and you can also plan to share your story with a much smaller circle.
If you want people to read your novel, you need to give them something worth reading. Some people have this weird mindset that just because they’ve created something, they’re instantly entitled praise and attention, but that isn’t how it works.
There are lot of books in the world, bestie. How’s yours different? Is your voice unique? Are you telling a familiar story in a new way? Are you telling something that people need to hear about? Are you putting into words something that has never been read before? Are you simply a better writer, funnier, more observant, more clever than most other writers?
Whatever your reason is, you need to know what it is. It’s totally valid that you should care about the novel you’ve written, and it’s great that you’ve done it, but other people need more than that. Your novel also needs to be good enough that people don’t feel robbed if they’ve paid real money for it. If you’re not willing to do the work, worry not, there’s a horde of other writers who are.
“Okay, I definitely need to write that novel, where do I start?”
I’m glad to hear it! And I’ve got just the thing for you.
Start Your Novel mini course was made for anyone who’s dreamed of writing a novel but who keeps getting overwhelmed the second they sit down to try. You don’t need a fancy MFA, a cabin in the woods or 6 hours of free time every day to start writing that novel. Just five days, a willingness to learn new things and a notebook. (Okay, you actually get a Google Docs workbook, but who doesn’t love using a notebook as well?)
True, five days isn’t enough to teach you everything you need to know about writing, but it’s enough to get you started. What if this time next week you were already writing your first draft?
Protagonist Crafts is a blog about writing fiction, written by a published author and creative writing teacher. You can find more writing tips and inspiration in the blog and you can get the best author tools at Writer Lifestyle on Etsy.
