The Advantages of the First Novel

by Elizabeth Maria Naranjo 

Writing the first novel is hard, but writing the next one’s harder. At least for me. That’s because with the first one, I really didn’t know what I was doing, which has its advantages.   

For one, if I’d any idea how hard it would be, and how long it would take, I’m not sure I could have done it. 

For another, I wasn’t intimidated by the four hundred things you’re not supposed to do when writing a novel, because I didn’t know the rules. What I knew was this: I had an idea and I thought it was a pretty good one and I was going to turn that idea into a book. I was in creative writer mode. 

Back then I wrote in a bubble. My first draft of The Fourth Wall was written before I subscribed to any writing blogs and before I attended any writing conferences. I was taking a writing workshop at the time, but it was my first time doing that, and most of the works we shared were short essays, not fiction. 

After I wrote The Fourth Wall, I went from creative writer mode into publishing mode. Knowing I had to come out of my bubble, I signed up for a writer’s conference and subscribed to a blue million blogs—agent blogs, writing advice blogs, publishing blogs. I learned about the four hundred things you’re not supposed to do when writing a novel. In fact, I learned so much that for about a year, every time I tried to start a new book, I’d freeze. Now that I knew all the rules, I worried too much about breaking them. 

Don’t get me wrong: many of the rules are important. But most shouldn’t apply to creative writing mode. 

On Twitter, I follow several teenage writers who are incredibly prolific. Their enthusiasm is palpable, and it reminds me of how I wrote when I was that age. I took writing seriously but I also enjoyed doing it, and I believed in myself and my own process and creativity. That was how I wrote The Fourth Wall too: with energy and excitement and a sense of adventure. This spirit can get lost when a writer is stuck in publishing mode. 

Recapturing a sense of unbridled enthusiasm for the second novel requires the same things that inspired the first novel: a good idea and the passion to turn that idea into a book. It requires a writer to follow only her instincts, at least for the first draft. It requires, in short, a writer to go back to the bubble. 

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