stages of writing a novel

stage one: inspiration kicks you in the knee and screams

“YOU HAVE TO BE A WRITER OR YOU’LL DIE”

so what do you do?

you listen to it and start writing, fool

you finally have yourself a good plot line and strong characters and your outline is [mostly] completed

POWER ON AnD PUT CHUFFING WORDS ON THE CHUFFING PAGE

BUT WAitttttt….hold up….

nope

not working, take a break

this is called the denial stage

denial of your talents

denial of your dreams

denial, just so much of it, k?

you’re halfway through and you just want to give up

but you realize that you have to keep going because of a deadline, or you own pride, or a school credit [ahem]

so you turn to your only saviour in this scenario and push forward [i’m lucky, my sister’s a barista so i can get all the coffee i want, aha]

YOU’RE SO PROUD AND THE END IS IN SIGHT AND YOU’VE GOT THIS THING ROLLING AND IT’S GOING TO BE A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND WHUTTTTTT

YOU’RE IMAGINING YOURSELF SELLING SIGNED COPIES TO THE QUEUES OF PEOPLE LINES UP TO READ YOUR BOOK

YOU SEE YOURSELF AS A REAL PUBLISHED AUthorrr

wait a second, do author’s always have to be poor??

aha, aha, no, slow down

your sensibility kicks in and reminds you to lower your expectations, to just focus on finishing your novel

and just like that, you’ve jinxed it and writer’s block shows up

crap

[also, i feel like there should be a mad writer stage where you go completely crazy and live off of coffee for a week or so]

you become that crazy friend who forces everyone she knows to read her trash

also, this is when the insecurity and hermit-mode comes into show

BUT YOU’RE WRITING YOU’RE WORKING YOU’RE BASICALLY SACRIFICING YOUR LIFE AND BLOOD AND SWEAT TO THIS NOVEL AND FINALLY

it’s done

you read it through

you freeze

something doesn’t feel right

waiiiittttt…..yeah no, this isn’t working

RESTART

and go back to the beginning to see what happens next

it’s literally a circle of doom, y’all

~soleil

{stray thoughts}