Sometimes – well, more often than not, I suppose—I wonder what the Eff I’ve gotten myself into with this novel-writing exploration. It’s been four and a half years since I said to myself, “You have no more excuses. Write that novel.” Whereupon I jumped in.
Since then, I’ve rewritten that first full-length novel three or four times, written another five (or is it six) subsequent novels about the same character, Jia Peach, my favorite sorceress, as she faces demons, nightmares, her burgeoning music career, and so on while grappling with her magical Triquetra amulet bequeathed to her by her mother with the firm instruction to ‘never let it go.’ Some of those stories have gone through a second and third revision, and a couple of them still sit in the digital folder untouched since I wrote “The End.”
It’s been since October of ’22 when I jumped into Jia’s “origin” novel, the one where I lay down all of the markers for what’s to come. The one that tells the reader how it all started. Of course, it also tells ME how it all started, which is the real reason I wanted to write it. I needed to know her backstory so that everything else unfolded logically from that.
Seven Drafts
As last fall unfolded, I read the book Seven Drafts by Alison K. Williams. In December, I took her advice, took several weeks off from working on the book, and started again in February. I put it off until February 29 (thanks to Leap Year for the extra day!) and got the first chapter of the rewrite down on screen. That first chapter ended up being over 2200 words, and since then, I’ve managed five chapters, and I’m up to about 10,000 words. Typically, in the past, I’d write every day for 60-90 minutes, which is about all my schedule would allow. This time, I’ve found less time to focus on the book due to my work schedule and a week-long business trip to LA, where I managed one short chapter.
How Writing is Changing: Using ChatGPT as a Virtual Assistant
I have done a lot of thinking, researching, and playing around with ideas to bring various ideas and elements into the story. I use ChatGPT for many things, such as generating ideas to ponder. It’s like having a brilliant, hard-working assistant that works at supersonic speed. Need a list of potentially mysterious and significant items in a dark box that Jia finds in her mother’s bedroom after she dies? GPT will give me endless ideas, many of which work (many don’t), and frankly, it helps me think about the story in a wider and more all-encompassing way.
Need some immediate feedback on some chapters you just wrote? Ask GPT to act as a professional editor. For example, I asked GPT to review my first chapter and provide specific feedback and suggestions. I was a bit astonished, although I suppose I shouldn’t have been, when a slew of specific feedback gave me things to think about regarding sensory details, emotional nuance, pacing, focus, foreshadowing, clarity of supernatural elements, character depth, symbolism, character development, world-building, dialogue, and more. It told me where I succeeded and suggested how to improve. Without hiring a professional editor, I feel that the feedback I received, once I gave it specific instructions, was good or better than a hired editor might be (although I have also hired editors and received excellent feedback from them).
Should I Be Able to Write This Story?
I keep my wife apprised of my progress, although she’s not that interested at this point in the number of details I’m willing to share about my WIP (I’ll go on and on if given a chance!). But, one thing that she’s brought up is the question of why an OWG like me can authentically write about a 16-year-old Korean-Irish girl—a sorceress, no less. Basically, what gives me the right to speak for her? We’ve had discussions about this, and while I don’t think I’ve changed her mind, nor has she changed her mind — she’s not certain that I can do it appropriately or if I should do it all, simply because I can’t speak from Jia’s point of view. I think it’s a worthwhile question.
Why should an Old White Guy have the sensibilities and insight to write from a teenage girl’s Point of View? Because that’s what I, the writer, want to do. Once the book goes public, I’ll let others judge whether I’ve done it correctly or should have even attempted it in the first place.
This brings me to how a writer might approach the most basic question: what should one write about?
Writing Advice?
Let me go back to when I began to write as a young person. The advice I often heard, and it was meant to be helpful, was “Write what you know.” Frankly, I realized the advice was indeed meant to be helpful, but I think it does more damage to writers than is knowable. Somewhere along my writing journey, I heard a completely different piece of advice, which changed my sensibilities and approach to writing. The advice? “Write what you want to read.” To me, that made infinitely more sense.
I wanted to read the story of a 16-year-old Korean-Irish sorceress whose mother has just died. She faces life without her and learns that she is the latest in a long string of magical persons passed down over a thousand years.
I also posted about the feedback I received from a submission to Uncharted Mag. It was pointed out how authentic the opening scene was, including Jia's awkwardness and the authenticity of the dialogue. So, I feel I’m on the right track with this project. And yes, if a writer is good enough, they should be able to write about anything they set their mind to.
Avoiding Burnout on Reading Substack
I’ve written about this before and didn’t really come to a good conclusion. I subscribe to dozens of Substack writers and get something worthwhile out of most of them, but I don’t have the time to wade through the dozens of emails that show up. So I end up spending waaaaay too much time each day, and it frustrates me and eats away at time that I could use for a better purpose.
However, a week or so ago, I came across a Substack Note from
at The Author Stack:One thing that kept coming up from yesterday’s post beyond writer burnout was reader burnout.
So, as somebody that subscribes to over 400 publications, let me tell you what worked for me.
First, turn off email notification in your settings so you have to read in the app. That’s so critical to this because otherwise you’re pelted with emails all day and night.
Second, treat the app reader like you would a newspaper or magazine. You aren’t expected to read every article in a magazine, right?
That would be bonkers.
Substack is like one big, enormous magazine that functions together.
Third, choose a time or two in the day, and set a limit on your reading. Scroll through the app and find the things that capture your attention.
Dismiss everything else. Either archive it or just pass it. If you want to check at other times, you can save articles to read later.
This is the only way to read on Substack that doesn’t lead to burnout, because there’s just too much otherwise.
I don’t feel the need to read every article from every person, and you soon realize that many, many, many articles are paid previews, and those you can mostly skip unless you’re a paid member already.
It literally revolutionized my relationship with Substack to give me the power of opening the app instead of getting peppered with emails constantly.
I thought, no way, it’s not that easy, is it? I went into settings and made the suggested switch, and all of those emails stopped coming into my inbox. And when I pull up Substack on my phone, I can browse through the ones I want and read at my leisure. Treating the app reader like a magazine or newspaper really is a good change of context, and so far, I like how it works. I suppose I’m not reading everything that I would like, but it’s like reading the NYT, the Washington Post, the local paper, or some magazine I pick up: I don’t read every single article. Instead, I gravitate toward the ones that attract me the most. Same with the Substack app.
Love it!
‘Treat it like a newspaper’ is a great tip. ~ Happy writing!