A little-known fact about me is that I wrote a book three years ago. The reason why people don't know this is because if I talk about it I feel both intense pride and serious embarrassment, and I'll get to why. But November is National Novel Writing Month, and there are thousands and thousands of writers who are working on their first novel now. There are even more people who want to write a novel but are too intimidated by the idea to start, so I want to share the six things that really surprised me about the process of writing a book. This was only my experience of course, but from what I've heard from other writers these points are pretty universal.

1. You really shouldn't edit as you go.

When I started writing my book, I wrote in chronological order. I started with the first chapter, and it took me a while to get past it because I wasn't pleased with how I'd written it, and I felt like I couldn't move on to the rest of the book until I had the first few chapters how I liked them.

This was a mistake. If you're editing as you go, several things will happen. First of all, you won't progress. If you edit as you go, you're putting a lot of work into one part of the novel and opening yourself up to fatigue and tunnel vision. Second of all, you won't be able to sustain it. I edited as I went for the first couple of chapters, but when I really got into the meat of the novel I quit it because I realized that getting the damn thing written meant I couldn't keep stopping to go back and edit something I'd just written. Your editing eye is weak right after you finished writing anyway.

2. You'll be dying to get the words on the page.

Once I was about a quarter of the way through my book (about 15,000 words or so) I snapped. I was writing almost every day, and I switched from choosing my words carefully to just hammering it out. I didn't need it to sound good, I just needed it written. I started getting into the bulk of my writing during winter break, and I gave myself nothing else to do besides sit in the computer chair and write. I wrote when I was sick of my book. I wrote when I felt like a ghoul. I knew it didn't sound good, but I didn't care. If I had only written when I felt enthusiastic about writing another 5,000 words I never would've finished my novel. After months of writing, I really just wanted the thing to be written.

3. You're not done because you've finished writing it.

When I finished writing I didn't have a book. I had a first draft of a book, and it was not pretty. There were plot holes, typos, boring imagery, and sloppy structure. I have never written anything, short story, poem, or novel, that didn't need editing after I finished writing it. 56,000 words later, the hardest part was yet to come.

4. Editing is more excruciating than writing.

Writing the book took me several months. Editing the book took me a year and a half. I have rewritten every chapter in my book at last twice, and when I say rewritten I don't just mean that I edited it, I mean that I deleted the entire chapter and re-wrote it from scratch. I think I ended up re-writing my first chapter six times. There are so many things to think about while you're editing. You have to go through your book and fix all the plot holes (and trust me there will be little details you've gotten mixed up), you have to make sure the words flow well and you aren't using any one word too many times, you have to make sure the universe and characters are consistent, and once that's all done you need to proofread it several times for typos and grammar issues. It was a joyless task, and I hated myself during it.

5. The secret to writing a book is to write the book.

A novel is technically a work of 50,000 words or more. People have told me that they have always wanted to write a book, but they just didn't think they'd be able to do it. The truth is that anyone who can write can write a book. Of course, you need to think of a story first, but once you have that all you have to do is start writing and not stop until you've hit at least fifty thousand words. Once you've done that, you've written a book. It's a long grueling process, but it is 100 percent possible to do. It took me two years to finish my book, but not all of that time was spent writing and editing. I took breaks for weeks and months when I was just too burnt out to continue. In contrast, some people completely finish a book in three months. When you write a book, you can do it on your time, and your terms. A book that took ten years to write is still a book that you've written, and something to be very proud of.

6. Your first book is more than likely not very good, and that's OK.

One of the reasons why I don't really talk about my book is because when I say I've written a book, people want to read it.

I do not want anyone to read this book. No one should have to.

It's not a good book! And I'm not being humble here, I think I'm a good writer and that I mostly write good things, but my book is not good. The plot makes no sense, the characters are weird, and the pacing is super off. It is, by all standards, a pretty silly book. There is no way its sell-able. Even after all the editing, I still didn't have a bestseller on my hands. No one is going to read it.

That doesn't make me any less proud of it, though. Finishing my book has been one of the proudest moments of my life. I wrote a book! A whole book! It was mine and mine alone, and nothing could take that away from me. I love my book. I love it, even though it's bad. It's my baby, and it was my pride and joy for the two years I spent writing it.

A common thing I hear on writing websites is that you shouldn't expect your first book to be good, and I agree with that. I wrote one of those flops, and I still wouldn't take back the countless hours I put into it.

Maybe your book will be good! Maybe you will have the next best seller! But for your first book, it's more than likely that you won't and that's okay. Stand by what you've written and be proud, you really have done something amazing.