If you want to write a book, start now

I started writing my first book in a pink notebook when I was in elementary school. It was called The Best Friends Club, it was kind of like The Babysitters Club. I never finished it. All through high school and university I dreamed of writing a book one day, but I only wrote things sporadically when inspiration hit me.

For years I let my daydreams of one day writing a book and becoming a writer sustain me. But I never committed, and I never took steps to make it happen. I was a single mom working a dead end job. I didn’t have time for much, other than work and taking care of my daughter.

A few years later I quit my job to take a sales job at a dubious company. It was horrible. I only lasted five weeks. When the shock wore off, I started thinking about what I really wanted to do. I knew I should at least be writing; using my skills and my degree. I started a part-time job in communications and PR. At the same time, a friend had quit her job to write a book. We talked about it a lot. With more time and inspiration from my writing friend, I finally started writing seriously. I committed to working on something daily and finishing it. It wasn’t easy. I had a young daughter and I was trying to break into a new industry of work.

But, I finally finished a full-length book and now I’m a well-paid novelist and I love what I do. Just kidding. I did finish an 80 000-word young adult novel. But it wasn’t good. At all. I know this because I had people read it. Most people couldn’t finish it. Some of my readers went painstakingly through it (which I really appreciated). They were upfront and honest with me: the story lacked structure, plot and character development, among many other things.

Writing a novel is a lot more than just sitting down and writing. It’s learning to do something new. You can be a voracious reader and a beautiful writer (I read at least a book a week, and was always told I was a good writer) – but that doesn’t mean you have any clue how to write a book. If you want to write a book, start now because there is a steep learning curve, it’s hard, it’s time consuming and you’re going to fail. On top of that, the industry is extremely slow and unforgiving. Even if you do have a great story (which you likely don’t on your first try), it could take a year or more to get picked up. Then it takes another couple years to get your book on the shelf.

Everything about writing and publishing is slow, so if you want to write a book, start now. What steps do you need to commit to today to work toward your future goal of publishing a book?

It’s been ten years since I started writing seriously and I do not have a book on the shelf yet, but I am closer than I’ve ever been. I completed two more manuscripts and I’m querying my third one now. I’ll let you know how it goes!