Jason A. Muckley

Writing a Novel #Journey #Inspiration

I have an announcement to make that will affect the types of posts here in the next months, year, I’m not sure. I am not really putting a timeline on it. I love reading as you might have guessed and obviously, I also love to write.

Most of my writing, recently, have been poetry in the past 3-4 years. But I think there is something in me that is not content with only writing poetry. Poetry has its limitations. I am not “closing the door” on this chapter in my writing life, but I want to take a break from it for a time.

I am taking a break from poetry writing to write a novel.

Besides writing simple, short stories as a kid, I have never attempted an endeavor like this in the past. I have had some ideas and thoughts about what I could write about and even followed the bunny trail of my thoughts to flesh out some of it. Usually those efforts have ended in some form of “impostor syndrome” and giving up before really giving it my full effort to make it happen.

If it isn’t “impostor syndrome,” the other trap I can see falling into is getting bored of my own story, which feels similar in that I just hate what I’ve written and think it all garbage. Now, being my first attempt, I don’t expect to write “To Kill a Mockingbird” or the next great American novel. But I want to enjoy the process, I want to like what I write and what it’s about. I expect it take time, to be work, to be hard, but I don’t want to give up on it.

I believe I have a voice and my words deserve to be heard.

So, what do I envision my blog looking like for the rest of the year? I will likely re-post some old favorites. I will continue to share my journey in writing this novel, poetry and other forms. I will continue to share inspiring quotes and content to encourage you. I will probably have some posts that are more like polls to get people’s opinions regarding the ideas I am kicking around. I will continue to read and post about what I am reading to help connect readers with authors.

Lastly, I want to open up the conversation to you, my readers, about your thoughts about writing, and writing a novel in specific. Have you written a novel? What was it like? What was helped you during the process? What words of advice would you have?

Please share in the comments below. Thanks!

– Jason

24 comments

  3. How exciting! I’ve never written a novel either. Though, I just helped a friend find an editor to help organize his thoughts and notes. Depending on your levels of self-discipline, sometimes it helps to have the right person motivating you and fanning the embers to your flames. It could also help to have another pair of eyes on it whenever you’re ready to share.

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  5. That’s a great idea. I have a novel, written long back. As you are writing poetry for last few years, your novel may have a poetic touch. You will have to balance between poetic and realistic touches. Best of luck.

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  7. Hi Jason, I applaud your decision. I finally finished my novel in November 2019 by using the NaNoWriMo process. (It stands for National Novel Writing Month). It is an international event and takes place every November. The idea is to write 50,000 words in a month which works out about 1,666 words a day!
    If you check out their website, they may well have a physical group near you that will be meeting on Zoom at the moment, no doubt. You have the rest of August, all Sept and Oct to prepare and there are lots of helpful tips and plans you might like to follow.
    Lots of luck, Jason. Go for it!
    Best regards
    Carolyn x

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  8. Congrats, Jason! That’s awesome to hear, and I wish you the best of luck!

    My biggest word of advice is to set a firm deadline for yourself to keep you accountable and to “schedule” procrastination time. And if you need any help at any point or someone to bounce ideas off of, please don\t hesitate to reach out. I’m more than happy to help. 🙂

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  9. Hi Jason I’ve been following you since around February when I started my own site, I’ve enjoyed reading your poems and wish you the best of luck on writing your novel. I write poetry as well and that is what my site is devoted to. I also want to publish my work one day and would really appreciate any insight you could give me as someone who has self published themselves. Since you mentioned Impostor Syndrome I thought you might enjoy this poem I wrote about impostor syndrome. https://mad-poet.com/2020/03/04/impostor-syndrome/

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  12. Hi Jason,

    Congratulations on making the choice to get into the novel writing; welcome! I am in the same boat as you, having written plenty of poetry in my time, but it purely became a distraction from my true desire which was to get a novel out of my mind and down on paper.

    After many starts (and stops), I’m finally in the position to say that there is movement! With over 30,000 words down, I can feel the pieces beginning to form. If you’d like some recommendations on blogs to check out, just let me know.

    submeg

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  14. As everyone above said, good luck with your writings whatever you do! My life was never that interesting to write about therefore I haven’t even considered writing a novel. I enjoy the little I do write on my blog here.

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  15. That’s a great goal, and am wishing you all the best!

    I myself have written three novels, the first one set to be published in April 2021, while the two others are pending reviews.

    What I can say is just to keep writing, though something tells me you already know this. The work will feel insubstantial every day, and your mind will always remind you of that, but over a period of time, the manuscript will start to take shape, and your skeptical mind will start to be silenced. So that’s why, no matter what, just keep at it!

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