June of 2020 was when I finally was ready to start writing the first draft of my first novel.

I knew NOTHING about novel writing.

In fact, I had never written anything longer, really, then flash fiction pieces. And any essays I wrote were usually shorter than 2000 words.

But there I was, armed with an idea and my ignorance. Which is kind of great because you can’t be afraid of what you don’t know.

I found a writing coach, Nicole Criona from the LA Writers Group, who would work one-on-one with me as I began this journey.

And I even signed up for a 12 week online Creative Writing 101 course with Gotham to keep the juices flowing along with participating in a Moth Educators Workshop for a few days in July.

The goal was to immerse myself with other writers in the world of storytelling and craft and to be able to bring what I learned back to the page.

Since school was officially out for the year, I had all the time in the world to devote to my novel.

I got up every morning at 8am and sat myself at the dining room table. I’d listen to “Careful Where You Stand” by Coldplay on YouTube. That song was on repeat the entire summer I was writing.

I’d write for a while and take a break. Go back to my writing and take a break. There was a lot of this rhythm, which worked well for my creative brain.

I’d write until dinner time, when at that point, the ideas weren’t flowing as easily. So, I’d leave the novel until the following morning when I’d start my rhythm again.

In July, I realized that because this book was a work of historical fiction, loosely based on stories my Nana told me, I thought it would probably be a good idea to talk to my dad to get some insight into the family dynamics and what was going on in the world during that time.

What a treasure to be able to sit when him and pick his brain about our family history. He painted a world so cozy and loving that I was worried I wouldn’t be able to do it justice with my words.

He talked about all of his aunts and uncles who were always popping in and out of the house. How they had Sunday dinner, feast of the seven fish at Christmas, card games at the dining room table on a Saturday night.

He told me about how after my Nana’s sister died at 34 years old, my Nana stopped going to church because she didn’t want God to look too closely at her family and take away someone else that she loved.

And then I wrote.

Whatever came to mind. However it came to mind. I wrote it down and figured I would clean it up later. And I met with my writing coach once a week to go over what I didn’t know. What I could add. What wasn’t working.

The first draft is my favorite part of the writing process. You can literally do whatever you want in a first draft because it’s really just getting the story down.

My mantra was: it doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be finished.

And by September 2020, right in time for the start of the school year, it was.

And then I made some FATAL errors. What were they?

Join me next Saturday as I discuss what NOT to do when writing a book.