Can You Write a Good Novel First Time? | How To Approach Your First Novel  

'You're not writing *any* book, you're writing *you're* book' - love that. And it's so true. There is so much that goes into a good book outside of a checklist, template or method of how to plot a story

My first book was not good but I had a lot of fun writing it and working out how I worked as a writer, it was a learning curve for me!

Yes, it's possible, but first you need to write some short stories and learn golden tips of writing and plot making. After that, you can write good novel. At least, my first novel is good and it happens because of hardworking :) Happy new year btw!

THANK YOU for telling us to have fun. You highlighted my predicament perfectly in a way I haven't seen any writing-based RU-vidr explain. I started when I was twelve, and it really took off when I was 14. I had an absolute blast and this lasted until I hit 15 (it was really bad but at least I was having fun and learning simultaneously, certainly writing more and more often than I have since), but between me overstressing on whether or not I'm doing it the "right way" and real life events getting in the way, I have barely been able to have fun and it's been really scaring me away from what used to be my favorite hobby. I'm gonna take this advice to heart and just type away today and see where it takes me. Thank you again!!

The hardest lesson I had to learn as a new author was that I write for personal enjoyment, growth and (no matter what anyone else says) for myself. For me, the writing journey is not about crafting elaborate plots and grandiose character arcs to get to the eventual goal of fame and fortune. That's no fun at all. Hell, that sounds more like work. And I don't need a second tedious job. My personal process is about exploring my own ideas and seeing where they lead me. More often than not, I end up in a story I never expected. Are they always good? Probably not. But I'm OK with that as long as I have fun getting to the end. As a boy I wrote stories so I could be anyone, go anywhere and live in unimaginable worlds that span time and space. There are no limits and all boundaries fall away. I hope this doesn't sound over the top. But here goes. Being an author, writer, and story-teller is like being a God. Yep. I went there. But in some small way that's true. Everything in story, everything that happens to characters and to their worlds, happens because we want them too. We will those worlds into existence and those characters live because we make it so. As a result, they get to breath and we get to hone our craft and much more. By nature I'm a pantser. I love the process of discovery writing. It is cathartic and fulfilling and reveals as much about me as a person and writer as it does about my characters, their settings or their stories. That's the much more part. I get to know myself better. Great video by the way. It's nice to see someone willing to share their own journey of self-discovery. Keep it up. I just wanted to add one more thing. I watch a lot of RU-vid/AuthorTube videos where the content creators critique and criticize the works of others with a keen analytical eye turned towards what went wrong and how to fix their rookie mistakes. You, on the other hand, seem to be the only one brave enough to do so with your own pieces. That speaks volumes about their unwillingness to shate their true abilities and even more about your transparency and credibility.

You certainly can write a good novel as your first. Altered Carbon is a testament to that.

Write the novel you want to read. That is how I got through my first novel. Once you get through the first novel, writing the second and third novels becomes easier because you know you can do it. The problem is that once you succeed and finish your novel, trying to get it in front of readers is another challenge. Marketing is by far the hardest part of writing for me.

My first book had too much fluff at the beginning and was structurally unsound. But there's some good stuff in the second half I could have chucked it into the pit of doom but I didn't want to and now I am taking advice from an editor to see what can be improved and what needs to be cut. Like you said; we don't know what we're doing in our first book and it's all a learning curve. I have written and published my second book and because of the connections that the two books have, I can't throw the firsy= book away, nor do I want to. You're right Kieran about the value of things you have written along the way/ they're not rubbish but stepping stones to real greatness.

There were some really good points in this video and you are so encouraging, as always.

Love your tips, advice and observation pal. Thank you.x

You deserve more views, your content is really useful to me as I'm trying to recreate the old comics i made when i was younger into a rich fictional story with more logic and in depth worlds

Thank you, Kieren! I've just started my first attempts at writing.

Thanks Kieran for the 'big picture' view on writing your first novel. And it was interesting meeting your alter ego next to your (his?) Guitars. "You must enjoy the process" it certainly makes it easier to slog it out if you do. Just a heads up, a great book about the creative process is Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. Cheers mate.

What a good solid video, sound advice man!

Love this take. Thankee.

Happy New Year, Kieren! Glad to see you're settled in your new place 😊 When I started my first book, I didn't realize it, but I was trying to write it in the style and voice of other authors I loved. Looking back, that kind of imitation wasn't going to get me anywhere in the publishing world, but it did help me to finish the draft. I learned by imitating and slowly branching out into my own style. Totally agree with you about just having fun with those first attempts at novel writing! [I love alter ego Kieren, by the way 😂]

I stumbled upon your channel because of the Chuck Palahniuk video, and now this lesson in novel writing has given me a lot to think about. I once considered writing a novel, but dropped it. These breakdowns really make the methodology super approachable for such a monumental task, and you might have sparked my interest in writing again. Thank you, and man, I find your videos super insightful, keep doing this I love it!

Ahhh! I love this! Focus on the FUN! Amazing video as always - so glad you’re back!! I’m thinking of making a video in response to this - it’s such a thought-provoking topic ! Thank you for this - also loving the Kieran alter ego 😂

I really needed this. Thank you.

I've watched a few of your videos about writing - I subscribed after the first one popped up - and you are a very generous person, which is rare and often overlooked. Sharing your experience takes time, and you do so with clear examples, a genuine tone, and no 'schamby pamby stuff'. Always interesting to hear your take on the various angles of the art. Thank you!

Write your thing 🙌💯. I love this! Thanks for sharing! I needed to be reminded that I need to stop wondering if I'm doing it right and just have fun 😭. Not so much in my writing, but in my publishing journey ❤ it's been a rough year 😅 but on to 2022. I love your split personality 🤣. What is that green fuzz in the far left corner of some of your video? Plant?

@Kieren Westwood Firstly, Happy New Year 2022!! 😁🌈🎉Pls make a master class or a batch of videos dedicated to the "fiction writing stuff", it would be helpful for more writers like me...

And he’s back. So checking this out later on tomorrow. Happy New Year 🥳

I think this is great advice for young writers and experienced ones as well. I have been writing a long tiime and I recently came to the same conclusion with my fiction writing; i was spending lots of time on longer projects and seeing that I wasn’t having fun, I felt the pressure to produce something for all the time I put in and I wasn’t having fun. I try to focus more on the fun now & it’s helped. Thanks for the videos!

I discovered this channel a few days ago and subscribed because I think it's great. I think anyone is capable of writing a good first book, but anyone who does has to put in a lot of effort and time. Writing a novel can be a rewarding journey though. I am finishing my first novel right now. Three weeks ago, I sent the first draft to my publisher and received a rave response. Of course there will be some tinkering with it, but as the book launch is planned for mid-January next year, there is still time to improve it to a second or third draft. The book will be in Dutch (I'm Dutch, I live in The Netherlands). 1. My first advice to beginning writers: start with a good story. I've been a storyteller in my city since 2005 and I guide people around. As a storyteller, you have an audience and you get reactions. I'm not saying that as a writer, you should start as a tour guide, but it helps to figure out how to make people curious about the story you're going to tell during the walk from the beginning of your tour and how to keep the momentum going until the conclusion of your story. This experience helped me a lot when I was writing my story. 2. My second piece of advice is to stay true to yourself. You have probably experienced something that you do not dare to tell anyone about. Start there. Develop the experience you are too embarrassed to tell into a compelling story, it's probably a good story other people are interested in. Tell the essence of your story to other people, they are your first audience. Make someone else the protagonist, your audience doesn't need to know it was you. Telling your story is important because you need to gauge their reactions, to see if it is worth working on. If the reactions are lukewarm, your story is not working out. If they start asking questions as a result of what you have told them, you probably have something interesting up your sleeve. Then go work on it. To paraphrase Stephen King: write something that is forbidden, something that nobody else can write. 3. My third piece of advice is to consult books on writing. There are great books to buy or borrow from the library. A few names I thought were very useful for me: Story by Robert McKee, The Anatomy of Story by John Truby, and if you're polishing your first draft I can recommend Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King. Do that and start self-editing, your manuscript will become much better and has a better chance to be published. Some RU-vid channels like this one by Kieren Westwood can also be helpful. Other useful channels to get information on story development are those of Reedsy and Film Courage. edit: Keep in mind that whatever people say, you are the writer of your story and you will develop your own writing style during the process. It may take many many years before you produce some decent writing (it took me about ten years, including the research about the subject of my historic novel, it is a true story), there is always room for improvement. The more effort you put in, the better your manuscript will be. Cheers!

Hi Kieran, thank you so much for your videos. They are a real help to me. I’m approaching the end of writing my 1st draft, it’s been 18 months , sitting at around 100k words. This is my very first attempt at writing a novel and watching your videos helps put me at ease lol. I say this because I am definitely not a planner but enjoy writing in the moment each day and seeing where the story takes me. I aim for 250-500 words a day if I can. Thanks again for your support. Please let me know if you do a video on how to tackle a 2nd draft. Thanks mate. Callum

Hei, man! Great video, as always! Discovering your channel was amazing and I'm devouring all the videos pretty fast. I've read Gold Fury recently and loved it. It was my first flash fiction ever, so I don't really have something else to compare it to, but awesome nonetheless. Can you recommend me another thing your wrote that I should read next? Thanks!

My best friend a while back suggested me an idea. He said I should go back and watch the films, tv shows, anime and cartoons that I really like. Then I should ask myself what did I like about each one? What drew me into watching these? Why did I choose these pieces of media as ones I liked over others? From there, I got a few answers. I already knew I loved Fantasy with superpowers, magic, mythology and fictional worlds but, I noticed a few other things like having the main character be the narrator and instead of being like an actual narrator (describing things in detail with metaphors or similes to make the imagery stand out) I would have my main character just talk to the reader as if they were friends. An example of this is the opening of How To Train Your Dragon where the main character Hiccup narrates his village, his people and what they do there: "This is Berk. It's twelve days north of Hopeless, and a few degrees south of Freezing to Death." That's another thing I really like. Humour. By having humour in my story through narration, it engages with people as it will cheer them up if they're ever feeling down or upset. By adding this humour with the narrator, it gives the reader comfort and lets them travel to this new world where they can escape from all the stress they have in their every day life. This is what My Hero Academia does for me as not only is is a fictional world with superheroes but there are a lot of funny moments that make me keep watching, which is what a story should do. There's 1 big thing i've really started liking when watching media and that's characters. It may sound silly but when I was younger, I would like watching films just because of the action. Like with Spider Man 2, I didn't really understand it much when I was younger and thought it was a fun Superhero film (Although that hospital scene did give me nightmares XD) But, after watching it as a grown up, I've grown to love it a lot. The characters and their struggles (Especially Peter Parker) is so engaging that it makes me want to root for them and hope things will get better. Having characters that could act like your friend is something I really like as for people who are potentially lonely, making characters likeable and have that personality where they could be your friend with how relatable they are to them is amazing, especially if the narrator is that character.

You can't edit what you haven't written -- so write.

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