What I've Learned Writing a Full-length Novel and a Story Sneak Peek

Last week I finished editing my book--the book I've been working on for probably close to 10 years. Maybe longer. Who knows?

This book has gone through some huge changes and growing pains. It's a story that has always been there, in my brain and heart, but it's been hard to get out. Just as is often quoted:

There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.

This quote is often attributed to Ernest Hemingway but is also debated to be from Red Smith, Thomas Wolfe, and possibly others. See this fascinating post on the topic.

I still have much work to do on the project before it's ready to be published, but I'm very happy with where it's at and the timeline I have to finish it.

To celebrate this amazing feat, I thought it would be fun a to discuss the origin of this story and what I've learned through writing this piece that is very dear to me.

Where Did this Amazing Story Come From?

My full-length novel started as a dream, literally. A long time ago, when I was maybe 18, I had this dream about me but not me. Sometimes I dream in story. Does anyone else do that? I'm there but it's more like when you read a book and you are experiencing everything through the main character.

In this dream, the character was a young person, teenager maybe?, who was on the roof of a school. I, the character, had a sword in hand and called on the Guardians, my friends, to come save me. And after I uttered the words, they appeared and helped me battle the enemy on the rooftop.

Intrigued? So was I. That's why I wrote the story.

What I've Learned Writing this Story

I've learned so many things. It's been a long process. I had the dream over 20 years ago and it's gone through a lot of iterations as I've worked to figure out the plot, the characters, the rules of the magic world, and so much more.

In fact, originally, I was going to have the main character be a boy. Somewhere along the way I realized it needed to be a girl, especially with how I experienced the rooftop scene in my dream. So after writing an entire first draft, I went back through the book and made the character a girl, which changed so many other elements of the story.

Enough of that, though. Let's get into it. What have I learned?

It's Okay to Change a Story, Even after the Entire Thing Has Been Written

After I changed the character to a girl, I was ready to go back through and edit, edit, edit. But I found doing so to be very difficult. Something was off. So I decided to do something I probably shouldn't have done but was actually super helpful. I sent out my book to beta readers way too early.

My hope was to get feedback that would help me pinpoint the issues I knew were there but was having a hard time grasping, mainly plot and storytelling issues.

I was so thankful for the feedback I did receive because as I read through the notes provided, I realized I could use very little of what I received because I needed to scrap what I had and start again.

A Story Has Three Acts

This is something I learned in school, actually. I had a great fiction writing class in college that talked about a beginning, middle, and end. But the concept didn't stick with me as I was writing my book, mostly because the way it was taught felt a bit removed for me. But when I went back to rewrite my book, I thought about the same concept but in my theater mindset (yes, I was a theater kid in high school and loved it). This made a lot more sense to me and is actually taught in the Save the Cat concept of creating story. (It was a book written for screenwriters that has also been adapted for novel writers.)

So to start my rewriting journey, I created notecards with sticky notes, writing all the various scenes and elements I wanted to include in the book. I rearranged all of the notecards in the order that made more sense to the story and also divided things up into three acts.

I stuck the cards to my closet door and stood back, admiring my work. It felt good, the new direction.

Sometimes a Good Story Takes Time

After creating my notecard/story board, life picked up. Scott got home from Afghanistan and then we moved to Missouri, started a business, found out we were pregnant, and had a baby... After Berkley was born, I finally decided I needed to write this story. In 2022, I took NaNoWriMo seriously for the first time and dedicated an entire month to writing. By the end of the month, I had most of my story down, but not all of it.

But... I didn't sit down to write again until the following year. Life happened, again--moving, new jobs, and so on and son on. But when the new NaNoWriMo November rolled around again, I dedicated the time and finished my book.

Then end?

Haha. No. I didn't do anything with it until about six months ago. I have been feeling this yearning to get back to writing and this urge and prompting to finish this book. Finally, over the course of sixe months, I dedicated time to editing.

I have now gone through one passthrough. And I have more to do. And it's okay. I will get it done. It's a good story and I can't wait to share it with you. And I think that the time in between has actually been really good for the story.

Sneak Peek of My Full-Length Novel

It's the real moment you've been waiting for, isn't it? The true reason you came to this post? You want a sneak peak. Okay, okay. Here it is:

“You are not from this land, well, mostly. You were born at Draven’s Fort, near the village of Bright Wood, in the Land of Forgotten, also known as the Isle of Light.

“It is a place that was once a part of this world, but was hidden. There is a long history about the why. The short of it is that The Great Sorcerer hid the land from the rest of the world to protect both this world and those in the Land of Forgotten. 

The history goes back many generations. The Great Sorcerer witnessed much war over the magic in his land. He felt it best to keep the two worlds apart. But he did allow some travel back and forth through portals. Many have been destroyed, but one or two still exist. Or existed. The one you, Thea, were sent through has been destroyed. But there is one other, I believe, that is still available to us to return.” 

“So you can go back?” I ask.

“So we can go back,” Derwick corrects. “You will come with us, Thea.” 

I narrow my eyes in confusion. “Why?” 

“It is your heritage. There, we can train you so much better. There you will have access to all that belongs to you at Draven’s Fort. There, you can exercise your abilities more freely.” 

© Sara Ann Comte

That's all for now. Short, interesting, not complete to keep you wondering. Now it's time to get back to editing. Thanks for reading!