Did you prepare for you first novel?

[SerikoLee]

The first step is to have inspiration for what you are doing like tensei slime or whatever you read often.
Try mixing or making something unique to the genre you are similar with but when you hit a roadblock.
Search or look across the net for ideas like humans invading an orc territory and so on.

 

[RepresentingCaution]

I fantasized about it a lot before bed and then one day decided to start writing it down in my paper notebooks.

 

[TheTrinary]

Not at all. I had key scenes I wanted to hit but it was pretty much improv. This was highschool mind you. I imagine most people who start seriously writing younger have a lot more to figure out.

 

[Deleted member 58005]

I just thought of something cool in my head and was like, "huh, I should write a story about this." And now its doing well

 

[Layenlml]

Not really, I just started writing but at the same time... kind of? I made a fanfic so I can then later make my own novel, so does a fic counts as preparation?

My first chapters were bad and even with some editing they are still trashy. If it wasn't for someone reccomending
quillbot and google docs I would be doing the same.

Only after 30 chapters I started to really place time and focus on thing and think a lot about each chapter and even some future ones.

 

[killwrites]

Nope, it began on a whim and I only realised that I should have planned at least the storyline halfway through writing it. At least I managed to finish writing it

 

[EternalSunset0]

Not the complete plan, but I had an idea of what I want my story to be like as well as some key scenes and characters. Plus, the arcs to get to that point or what kind of scenes I want my characters to have/experience.

 

[Western42]

I didn't know what I was doing when I started writing. I already had an account here, so when I thought "hmm maybe I should write a novel" it only took me half a second to click the create button.
So, did you prepare for your first novel?
I did nothing, no research beforehand, no chapters written, didn't download any tools like Grammarly, didn't even think about what I wanted to do.
I used a trashy title (I changed that), didn't use a cover image (later I made a trashy one, a day later made it slightly less trashy), had a horrible synopsis (changed 10 times, still shit), have a trashy prologue (thinking about writing a new one).

Having made all mistakes, I learned for my next novel at least.

Now, I'm wondering if I'm the only idiot that didn't prepare for their first novel or if there are others like me. What were your experiences when you first started?

I started my very first book with no plans. It wasn't until I was some ways in did I actually start planning what I wanted in the story. Unfortunately, that story was deleted.

My very first story here I had already started creating. All I knew was the plot of it. So, with that plot, I started adding more details and, along the way, I finally came to what I wanted the story to have, even if it isn't finished.

 

[AliceShiki]

I didn't have any real plans. At most I had the basic premise and the ending planned (and I changed the ending). I just went with the flow and it worked out somehow. For a clearly amateurish work, I was honestly pretty happy with the final result~

It's fine to not plan out your writing too much in general I'd say. Winging it works perfectly fine for as long as you don't want to make a complicated plot with lots of foreshadowing and whatnot... But for more slice of lifeish stories? Then planning on most things is optional. It's fine to just go with the flow (I'd say that having an ending in mind, so that you have a goal on your head, is nice though... Otherwise your story may lose focus after a while).

If anything, I'd say that writing a few chapters in advance is nice to help you get a better feeling of what you want to write. It can help you get rid of some stuff early on, like... Some random side characters that are useless, or some side plots you came up with on a whim and have no plan of developing... Or even changing the entire setting of your novel twice during the process of writing ahead... >.>

So yeah, didn't really plan it out. Just wrote as my ideas came to mind~

... Now if only I stopped being so bad with procrastination, I'd actually finish working each day before midnight, so I'd have time to write my 2nd novel that has been on the works for who knows how long now... >.>

 

[MyukiMruieast]

Nope, I don't plan, I just have an idea, then I write, then I improve, and then I realize my mistakes and I rewrite them again. After writing for almost a year, I decided to now plan things because making a new chapter with no idea for how rhe plot's progress is a hassle and hard

 

[LunaSoltaer]

Nope. Wrote it for NaNoWriMo, and now that I completed that challenge, scaling down to weekly updates. Sadly it will probably lose me my three readers, but ah well.

 

[Ellieporter]

I just wanted to write a smut with two people fucking and the rest is history.

 

[Enoch]

Nope. I just knew I wanted to write a story about mechs. My problem though, was that I would get trapped in trivial details and write awkward dialogue as well as boring scenery. After a few months I decided to start writing again and so far I am satisfied with my work. I fleshed out my story a bit more in my head too, so it's not like I'm a headless chicken.

 

[Ai-chan]

I didn't know what I was doing when I started writing. I already had an account here, so when I thought "hmm maybe I should write a novel" it only took me half a second to click the create button.
So, did you prepare for your first novel?
I did nothing, no research beforehand, no chapters written, didn't download any tools like Grammarly, didn't even think about what I wanted to do.
I used a trashy title (I changed that), didn't use a cover image (later I made a trashy one, a day later made it slightly less trashy), had a horrible synopsis (changed 10 times, still shit), have a trashy prologue (thinking about writing a new one).

Having made all mistakes, I learned for my next novel at least.

Now, I'm wondering if I'm the only idiot that didn't prepare for their first novel or if there are others like me. What were your experiences when you first started?

Yes, Ai-chan prepared prior to writing. Because you see, for Ai-chan, it's getting into the zone for writing that is difficult. Due to how busy Ai-chan is in real life, Ai-chan can't get into the zone often. Ai-chan is a very serious person when writing. If Ai-chan can't visualize the scene, that scene is not writable.

 

[Kitsura]

no

 

[Yi_San]

I didn't know what I was doing when I started writing. I already had an account here, so when I thought "hmm maybe I should write a novel" it only took me half a second to click the create button.
So, did you prepare for your first novel?
I did nothing, no research beforehand, no chapters written, didn't download any tools like Grammarly, didn't even think about what I wanted to do.
I used a trashy title (I changed that), didn't use a cover image (later I made a trashy one, a day later made it slightly less trashy), had a horrible synopsis (changed 10 times, still shit), have a trashy prologue (thinking about writing a new one).

Having made all mistakes, I learned for my next novel at least.

Now, I'm wondering if I'm the only idiot that didn't prepare for their first novel or if there are others like me. What were your experiences when you first started?

Just like you. With no preparation. Started writing the first sentence entirely on a whim and the second sentence came automatically. With trashy name, bland synopsis, dumped all the information in just two chapters and planned to write the actual story in third chapter. But no one will wait for us nah?
When I read my own chapters, i finally felt. It was beyond trashy.
This is in the case of my first novel in English.

I wrote a novel and a pretty good short story in my own language (only about works published in platforms) without any preparations, it turned out be good. I think in my case it's because I don't have enough self confidence in my English? I am not bad at grammar but when I want to write a readable story in English, it is worse. After all I am only a middle schooler. But language has no class though. ??Iam trying to improve myself now.
Lol, did I deviate from the topic.
(My level of trashiness is glowing in my novel.)

 

[Jemini]

I had an idea in my head, and I started writing.

I did do a bit of research on the algorithm, and the one for SH was pretty simple at the time I started writing. (I came on almost right at the very start.) As for the actual story, well... there's a reason why I decided to scrap and re-write the entire thing from the beginning. "Key to the Void" is doing far better than "Sister of a Goddess." (Also changed the name when I rebooted it.)

 

[Zirrboy]

I have yet to write a story completely on my own, but I can snitch on three of the people I helped.

More or less all of them wrote a bunch of chapters with vague ideas of where they wanted to go.
One story later broke down due to lack of direction and thoughtless early decisions.
One is doing relatively well and could do even better if they had more time to write.
And for the last it's hard to compare, since the story isn't on SH.