What To Do With First Novel

[Justin]

Last year I made a goal to write 3 pages/day until I finished a short novel, kind of NaMoWriMo style - no editing, no judgement, just writing. I got to about 125 pages and felt that the story ended. I don't think it's great but it's a story with dialogue, character development, and a straight-forward plot. It starts, builds and ends. It was intended to be purely my first experience at writing a novel and I didn't really think I would do much more with it than that.

I guess I have 2 options:

Option 1:
After I finished it I started thinking I should revise it but now I'm wondering if it's okay to just chalk it up to a good learning experience and move on to an actual planned-out, workable novel. There's some decent parts to it but I don't know if the whole thing is worth the effort of revising or if I should just keep it for what it was intended for -to write a short novel just to get a taste of what writing a novel is like- and if I should now move on to the next novel. Is it bad practice to write a novel just to learn how and move on to the next one without polishing the first one?

Option 2:
I could complete the process of revising and cleaning it up as an exercise in becoming a better writer. Should I do that? Additionally, I suppose there may be a that it could clean up decently even if I didn't intend for it to.

Philosophical Question:
Is it okay to send in anything that's decent even if it isn't the exact piece of work that you intended or that you would like to write? What I mean is, if you send something in that isn't your favorite thing but it's decent will that first impression influence a publisher's view of you for the future or do you just keep sending new works as you finish them in case one catches the publisher's eye?

[Maeve]

Justin,
Sounds like what you have is a writing exercise. And yes, it is a good idea to write such a "novel" for practice.

Most novelists have one or more unpublishable novels in a desk drawer before coming up with the one that sells. Writing is a process and so is learning how to write.

From the tone of your post, it doesn't seem that you find your novel exercise interesting enough to revise. If you're bored with it, put it away and start on something that does interest you.

As for sending a "just decent" effort to publishers--bad idea. Don't bother sending any novel to an agent or publisher that you don't think is the absolutely finest thing you are capable of at the present moment in your career.

You would find it very helpful in your development as a writer if you could hook up with some other writers with whom to exchange ideas, manuscripts and moral support.

Sounds as if you're off to a good start. Write on!

[Justin]

Thanks for the input, Maeve. I think maybe I'll focus on a couple more short-stories, after which I'll try another go at a novel-length story.

I appreciate the thought of not "...sending any novel to an agent or publisher that you don't think is the absolutely finest thing you are capable of at the present moment in your career." That tells me 2 things. 1) That I should wait until I've written something that I'm proud of and that has some worth to it and 2) that I don't need to wait until one definite point in my writing abilities to send something to a publisher. If it's good writing and it seems like it's potential publisher-material than maybe it'll be worth a shot, even if my writing abilities change over time.

One of my favorite authors is Don DeLillo and all of his books are different - some are great in themselves and some require a little more devotion to his overall talents to appreciate. The ones that I like to most are from completely different points in his career. That tells me that every writer -or artist in general- is always changing and creating different types and qualities of art.

Thanks again for the advice - most helpful!

[Maeve]

Glad you found my comment helpful.

I'm not familiar with Don DeLillo. I did come across a writer this week whose mystery I really enjoyed: Boris Akunin, Sister Pelagia and the Black Monk. He breaks all kinds of rules of "modern" novel writing, but I love his style and I'll be looking for some of his other books.

[Justin]

Oddly, since I posted this it got me thinking that I can do more with the first novel. I actually stopped to think about it and plan some things, like a more focused plot and even a sub-plot, and I think I'll stick with it for a while now. Funny how that happened. I guess it just doesn't want me to put it down yet. :p

I'm not sure what your fiction interest but I'm a huge fan of DeLillo. I read White Noise last year and instantly loved it. Since then I've almost finished all of his novels. He's the kind of writer that makes me want to write.