Every young creative writer I'm sure dreams of writing a novel one day, I know I do at least. When I heard I could do that for my thesis my face lit up and I swear I was maybe one of the only people who was super excited to start working on thesis. I thought writing a novel was going to be pretty easy and that it would just happen that I would finish it in time for the end of the year. Unfortunately, when you are very active on campus, have schoolwork/homework, and a job there's not much time to write. I would have loved to write every night but realistically for me it was not possible. Writing a book is a big commitment and it is time consuming and I didn't have enough time to begin with. Also, when writing a book it can take up to two years or more for some authors. I write my best from the times of 10:30pm till 3:00am, but by the time I was done with all my other work I was exhausted and all creative ideas have already left my mind or I would start writing and end up falling asleep. Now that I am entering the real world I know I can set time aside each night to work on my novel. There will still be many struggles that I will face as I write and these are some of them.

1. It Is Time Consuming; You Need To Give It Your Full Attention.

Writing a novel is super time consuming. You need to make sure you set aside writing time each night in order to get anything accomplished. Even if you are writing miscellaneous things that don't necessarily make sense for the novel you need to do it. As long as you keep writing you will get somewhere. Some people don't plan out their entire novels, I think it is okay to start out this way, but once you have a general idea of what you want to do I think it is a good idea to make a plan. You want to know where you see your novel going!

2. It's Your Baby, But You Need To Know When To Step Back.

I learned this lesson quickly this past fall. My novel idea was my baby I had started it in high school and had continued it randomly over the years until this past fall. I was so attached to the forty pages that I had that I didn't realize how bad it actually was and yes I mean bad, it was terrible. My writing had changed so much over the years and my tenses kept switching back and forth between both present and past tense. I didn't realize this at first because I was so attached. I took a step back and got feedback from my peers and thank god I did. I decided to use the same general idea, but to rewrite it without looking at the old document. This ended up being an amazing decision. I know your book is your baby, but trust me when I say you need to know when to step back.

3. You Need To Know The Entire Life Of Your Characters.

When writing a novel you need to know every tiny little detail about your characters. This includes details that you most likely won't include anywhere at any point of your book. However, this is extremely necessary because you need to know how your characters will react to certain situations.

4. Different Eyes Beside Your Own Need To Read It.

This is very similar to it being your baby, but you need to know when it is time for a new set of eyes to take a look at it. They will have a different perspective and will question things you didn't see after writing it and rereading it. Most of the time this is helpful feedback to make your novel ten times better. Of course you are not obligated to change anything you don't want too. Getting feedback from your peers though is a perfect way to see what other people will think of your novel and to see how it will do when it is out there on its own. It gives you the chance to write it to the best of your ability. Your peers will push you to make it the best book you could have possibly written.

5. You Need To Do A Little Bit Of Planning.

I know most creative writers just like to write and not plan out what they are going to write ahead of time unless it is an essay, but when writing a novel planning can become very important. Novels are usually pretty long and it becomes easy to get things confused or possibly write the same thing over again. It is hard to reread everything you have already written before you sit down to write a new chapter. This is especially when you are pretty far into the novel already. I'm not saying you need a full detailed plan, but just some notes on where you see the novel going. The plans usually tend to change as you write anyway and that's okay as long as you have a general idea of where you want the book to go!

P.S. Writing a book can be hard but it is totally worth it because once you have that finished copy in your hands I bet nothing can bet that feeling. I am currently working on my own and cannot wait for my finished copy to be in my hands.