Craft Chat 5 Things you’ve learned writing ‘Book name”

[LJ Beck]

I just read this blog post by Chuck Wendig (link below) and it sounds like a fun/cool thing for us to do too.

List 5 things you’ve learned writing a now completed novel/novella. It doesn’t have to be things about the book, it can be things you learned about yourself, or some interesting tidbit you researched that blew your mind, or revelations that came to you whist writing.

It is not, however, about plugging your book. But you can post the cover of your novel. Unlike Chuck’s blog, it doesn’t not have to be published. It just needs to have one full draft completed.

Here’s the blog post: Five Things You Learned As A Writer Writing That Cool Thing You Wrote?

 

[Nikky Lee]

Here's mine in no particular order of importance (just what came to me first):

1. You and your editor will edit the book to within an inch of its life. You will then hand it over to your proofreader confident they won't find much. Proofreader will then find over 100 typos, grammar errors, inconsistent spellings etc.

2. The first page you open on your beautifully printed book baby will contain a typo.

3. Emotion makes for memorable. Readers may not necessarily remember the ins and outs of what happened in your story, but they will remember how it made them feel.

4. High school geography and history really came into their own but probably not the way my teachers intended (having that knowledge has been IMMENSELY useful for worldbuilding).

5. Random factoid: Straws were invented by Ancient Sumerians because they didn't strain their "beer" after it fermented so it was full of chunks. So they used hollow reeds to drink around the bits.

 

[Jake E]

I think the biggest things I learned while writing TTwP are:

1) What one person finds funny, another person completely misses.

2) MS Word spell checker is absolute garbage.

3) Text to speech is a really efficient way to proof-read.

4) A well written character can surprise you.

5)Plot holes cannot be avoided, only embraced.

 

[Nikky Lee]

3) Text to speech is a really efficient way to proof-read.

Ooo, yes, I second this!