Opinion: Stop Telling Young Writers That Their First Book Won't Be The One They Publish
This may be a hot take, but it's one I wish I'd heard years ago.
This is going to be a bit of a ramble, but this topic has been on my mind lately, and I’d like to address it as best I can.
While trawling about on Threads recently, I came across a post by an anxious aspiring author. She had watched one of Brandon Sanderson’s updated lecture videos, wherein he talks about how a writer should have written at least two or three novels before having one get published. This writer had been working diligently on her WIP for a while, and had been hoping to pursue publication with it. However, it was her first novel, and Sanderson’s words fractured her hopes of bringing it into the world.
This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this advice. In fact, I’ve experienced it firsthand. Last January, similar words nearly made me shelve the WIP that is now Weave the Worlds. Weave the Worlds wasn’t the first lengthy story that I’d written, but it was my first novel, and the first one that I’d made a sincere effort to polish and pitch. Hearing that my years of discipline and dedication to this story might have been a waste was soul-crushing. I can recall texting my best friend nearly in tears, demanding to know if there was any value in this advice, if I should really set the story aside and try something new, so I could hit that benchmark of “two-to-three novels before you publish one”. With her guidance, some prayer, and encouragement from other friends, I decided to continue work on Weave the Worlds, which culminated in me getting an offer of publication with a hybrid publisher late last year.
If I’d listened to that advice, Weave the Worlds wouldn’t be reaching the readers I’d always prayed it would. The more I thought about it, the more this advice makes me angry. How many would-be fantastic books are languishing in the files of a young writer’s laptop because they were told it would never reach readers, and that they should focus on a different novel project to keep developing their skills?
I am by no means advocating that young writers should pull out these projects, call them perfect, and start querying them. While I don’t believe that you need to have written 2-3 whole novels before you publish your first one, I do believe that you need to have produced a large volume of writing, and have learned to refine it. How this looks will depend on the writer. For some, it might mean writing dozens of short stories. For others, it will be writing several novels. And for still others, it will be writing one book and rewriting and reworking the idea until it’s truly polished and ready for querying (or publishing, if you’re going indie).
However, telling young writers that the first novel they’ve worked so diligently on isn’t going to be published isn’t helpful. If anything, it’s going to make their publishing dreams seem even further away.
This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t be realistic with young writers; writing books is hard. Getting them published is even harder. A lot of times it’s one step forward and two backwards. I was once told to “hold publishing loosely”, as there was no guarantee that anything I ever wrote would be published. However, telling young writers that they’ll basically eventually abandon their WIP makes their work feel meaningless, and when your work feels meaningless, it’s hard to care about refining it and making it the best it can be.
I’m not promising that the first book a young writer writes will be the one that they publish someday. However, if they learn to treat the story they’re writing like it’s truly going to be in the hands of many readers, chances are it’s going to be a pretty good first novel because they’ll be more motivated to revise and polish it.
Early on in my writing journey, I came across a quote on Pinterest that was along the lines of “Shoot for the moon; even if you miss you’ll end up among the stars.” Subconsciously, this became my writing mantra. Every story I wrote, treated like it was going to be published in some form. As I wrote, I imagined people reading the story, and that motivated me to make it the best that I could. I let myself fall deeply in love with my characters and my worlds. I learned to seek feedback. I abandoned some projects, but not before harvesting seeds from them that were planted into the fertile garden of a new project. I’m convinced that this accidental mindset is what allowed me to make the progress that I have.
Young writers deserve cheerleaders who are going to be realistic with them, but in an encouraging way. It’s true that perhaps the first book they write won’t be the one that hits shelves someday. But what if instead of pointing that out, we came alongside their dream, and shared their hope that it might hit shelves? What if we encouraged them to work towards that? As they continue to practice their craft and learn to accept feedback, they’ll become attuned to their work. They’ll be able to sense when it’s time to move on, and when a project can be polished further.
In summary, here are the three things I hope you’ll take away from this ramble:
Encourage young writers to take their WIP seriously.
Teach them to hold publishing loosely.
Let them know that it may be necessary to kill their darlings, but they don’t have to bury them.
