You dream of becoming an author but are stalled at the start, worried about the acceptance of your final product. Sentences chatter and sputter as you try to bring characters to life. Characters who trip and stumble from scene to scene, leaving readers perplexed and bored. Is that what it feels like to you? Time to be realistic.

Do you like every movie genre, every painting in the local gallery, every type of food, every smell, every song? You get the idea. As individuals, we have our own unique list of what we like and what we are not so fond of. There is a long list of genres and sub genres in the book world. You have your favorites, I have mine.

How we perceive someone else’s creative output has nothing to do with the person who produced it. Most likely we will never meet them, nor will we care about their history. What is primary is whether we like what we experience. Other aspects may follow.

Stop being concerned about the final piece you present to the world or its quality. You have not yet begun. If there is no beginning, you will never satisfy your curiosity and will never become a famous author.

If you complete your novel, you will be recognized as an author. Everyone knows that to write a novel, even the worst novel ever written — that award frequently goes to a book you may find here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_books_considered_the_worst or here https://geekforthewin.com/worst-books-ever/ or here https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2021/01/02/the-worst-books-ever-written/ — is a major accomplishment.

There are dozens of “worst of” sites like those listed on the sites above. The presence of some of the authors and some of the texts may surprise you. Just goes to show us how fickle an audience can be.

Friends, family, colleagues will congratulate you in years to come solely because you finished what many of them are too scared to start. Even when casual conversation turns to writing novels, you will receive verbal pats on the back. And when people ask you if you have sold many books, maybe a shrug and “lucky I have a job,” will push back many detractors. Follow this up with, “I enjoyed it so much, I am working on my next book with a better idea of how it is all done. How is your writing going?”

Recently I had a conversation with a person who has a great story to tell. A story I doubt we will ever read. This true story is/was to be a fictionalized account of a famous actor who sadly ended their short life in suicide. It is easily argued that with minimal research numerous deaths of this nature will be found among the rich and famous. The appeal of this story lay in the personal relationship between the writer and the actor. They were family.

Those within earshot mostly knew of a particular movie role played by the actor and agreed the work should be written. The consensus was that the plot as described would make a truly fabulous foundation on which to structure a novel.

The reply to this encouraging potential audience?

“I am a terrible writer.”

“How do you know,” I asked.

“I have tried several times to write some pages but when I read it, it doesn’t sound any good.”

The next day, curious about the story, I did a quick search and found that the potential author of a great story had been mulling over the idea for up to three decades. That is a long time to wonder if you could do something. Especially something with personal value attached.

If this sounds like the situation you are in, where you have a wonderful idea for a story but cannot get it down, the best thing to do is flush the idea from your mind and stop it bothering you. Yes, flush it out. Stop punishing yourself over the quality or the acceptance of your work, write and write and write. Do not stop until what is in your thoughts is put into pages. Ideas, characters, events, locations, photos, vignettes, time clips. Everything. Get is down quickly before self-flagellation takes over again.

Phew.

There it is. Now ask whether the story is worth telling. Would readers of that genre pick it up and take it home? You probably wrote in a genre you are familiar with. I expect your story elements will match those of others. It is not yet time to be flustered over grammar and structure, only the essence of the tale.

Carry on. Still no time to be concerned.

Your flushed out brain now has ample space to explore what it started and will happily render more complex characters and events. Timelines will magically appear and make sense as you read and re-read what you have put down. Detail and tightness will blossom across the pages. Grammar errors will raise their ugly heads.

As you keep going over the material, you will find useless paragraphs, sentences, words, characters, locations all feeding parasitically on your word food. Cut them out mercilessly. Make it all as lean as the structure will allow. And if you are short of bad prose examples look up some of the “worst books ever written” mentioned earlier. You will quickly see that your work is not so bad after all.

By this point you will have discovered that writing is more about persistence than skill.

Look up how many words are expected in the genre you have chosen and pick a number as a guide. Your work will tell you when it is done.

Now re-read with a critical eye. Be neutral and ask, “Would I actually take this book home with me?” Say “Yes”.

And you’re done with the writing.

Congratulations.