Are My Words Wasted?

Ask the Author Podcast Transcript

Episode 46, 22nd April 2024

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Are your words ever wasted? Jodi Gibson, author of REINVENTING EMILY BROWN gives her take and lets us know all about her Write Squad Community!

Show Notes

• Learning to write is tough
• I did this with my first manuscript…
• And my second manuscript…
• Write to the end of the first draft
• Get someone else to read it
• But if you are done, that’s okay

Episode Transcript

I am so glad that you have joined me and I'm really looking forward to today's topic. And it's all about when are your words wasted? But before we get into that, I have had a couple of inquiries about my Write Squad community and if I'd talk about that on the podcast Now, I didn't want to do a full episode about that, but I am happy just to give you guys a bit of a heads up of what my Write Squad community is all about.

The doors opened in january and it's basically an online writing group and community where like-minded writers and creatives come together to connect, learn and grow. I began hosting live writing sessions on instagram and this is an extension of that. We have a facebook group. We do writing Zooms, where we catch up and have Q&As. We have authors come in once a month and we get to chat to them about their writing process and the publishing experience they've had. We talk about all things from craft the writing craft to what we're working on the highs, the lows, the challenges.

Lots of opportunities for everyone to share. We have a few writing prompts in the group as well. There's Feedback Friday where you can submit your words and we can take a look at them. So there's lots going on in there. It's exciting. We have about 30 members at the moment and it's just a great place and I look so forward to popping into the group every day and seeing what everyone's up to and it's really engaging and lots going on in there. So if you are interested to know more, the best place is to go to my website jfgibson.com.au or just search Jodi Gibson and just head to the for writers tab and find Write Squad Community, and that gives you all the details. And if you have any more specific questions, you can, of course, shoot me an email. But enough on that for now. Let's move on to this week's question.

This week's question comes from Carly.

Carly says I'm embarking on my first novel, which I started back in August last year. I'm currently almost 50,000 words in and have had a major epiphany that my story isn't working, and I hate it. But I have other ideas I want to work on. So I'm torn because I feel like I've wasted so much time and so many words on a story that's going to end up nowhere. What should I do? Are my words wasted?

Thank you, Carly, and first of all, I really do feel for you. 50,000 words in is a huge effort and I totally understand how much time and energy that must have taken you, and for you to feel that your words are wasted is just awful.

Learning to write is tough

Firstly, let me say this no words are ever wasted. You said that this was your first novel, so you're learning. Writing a book is tough. It doesn't happen by some miracle where the words flow freely and magically into an amazing novel that you visualised when you first had the idea. It's hard work. So even if you do end up shelving these words and I'm not saying that you should they won't be wasted. I'll give you a couple of examples. These are personal examples that things that I've gone through.

I did this with my first manuscript…

So I wrote my very first novel sometime way back in the late 2000s. I had no idea what I was doing, why I was even doing it, and even less idea how to put together a novel, and I never finished it. I think from memory I got about 30,000 words in and gave up on the story because I just knew deep down it wasn't working. But when I look back on it now I can see all the mistakes I was making.

I was head-hopping, I was rambling on with scenes that didn't move the story forward. I was spending so much time in characters' heads I didn't have a set genre that I was spending so much time in characters' heads I didn't have a set genre that I was working with so many mistakes. But I look back and I realise it was kind of like my apprenticeship, where I was learning the craft of writing without actually studying the craft of writing, so learning on the job, so to speak. And while I didn't know what was wrong back then, I can look back now and I know that those words weren't wasted. They needed to be written and I needed to learn from the experience.

And my second manuscript…

The second example is a manuscript that I got about 20,000 words into and realised it wasn't working. I shrugged my shoulders, folded away for another day, thinking that was that, but that another day came and when I revisited those words I was filled with ideas. I realised why I'd fallen out of love with the story. I could see the mistakes I'd made and I could also see what I could do with the story. I ended up rewriting it and it was actually published in September last year as my third novel, Reinventing Emily Brown. So no, no words are ever wasted, even if it feels like that right now.

But let me offer you a few suggestions before you totally bin your words and please don't bin your words, just save them away for later. But I'm going to give you a few suggestions right now on what to do before you decide that this one's done for now. So, while you might think that the story isn't working, or if you hate it or fallen out of love with it, whatever, ask yourself if you're ready to give up on it. Or are you just in a bit of a funk? Maybe there's a block there or a frustration that you feel you can't get out of. If that's the case, here are some suggestions.

Write to the end of the first draft

My first piece of advice is to write to the end of the first draft, even if it's total rubbish, even if the story has totally gone off track and you have no idea where it's going. And I know that sounds like weird advice, but I do have a reason for it, and that is you have to know that you can finish a first draft. Why? Because so many people who want to write a book they never actually finish a draft. They end up with multiple half-finished stories that end up going nowhere. Because, I mean, it gets tough. You might start out great, smash out 10,000 words, a few more here and there, and then it starts to get hard. The words don't come and when things get hard, your brain actually starts looking for something else to do. A shiny new idea will come up. Maybe there's a course you're interested in and you think that you should put it aside and go and do that. Procrastination in any form. So if you can try and finish the story, as I said, even if it's just really rough, really rough, just see if you can push forward.

Get someone else to read it

My next piece of advice is maybe to get someone to read what you've written so far, someone you trust who'll be honest with you. Not someone who'll tell you it's amazing just because they don't want to hurt your feelings. Not someone who thinks they know everything there is to know about everything and will tell you blatantly outright why it's not working and what you should do with it, but someone who you can trust to give you honest and reliable feedback about what they liked, what they felt was working, what maybe they felt wasn't working. Did they get bored? Was there a character that really irritated them? Any feedback that might spark some ideas for you. Preferably get someone who is a reader and preferably someone who reads widely, because they will have a lot of information to draw from from the books that they've read. So even if you're not finished, this person might be able to give you some ideas why it's not working and you might just have a light bulb moment on how to fix it or where to take the story and you'll end up re-motivated, rejuvenated and you can get back to writing.

But if you are done, that’s okay

But if you do feel like you're done with this particular story, that's okay too. More okay. Maybe you can look into doing a short creative writing course. Maybe you can read some books on writing craft. Read some more novels to help you get clear in what makes a story work, or maybe just start another story. You said you have some ideas, so why not go for it? Flesh them out, see, see what they've got, see if you can fall in love with some new characters and plots.

As I said, writing isn't something that just happens. It takes time, it takes effort and, as they say, writing is rewriting. All writing, no matter what it is, takes you closer to writing something that you'll be happy with, something that you'll even be proud of. There's's no time limit, there's no right number of manuscripts or amount of words to have written, but the only thing that will get you there is to keep writing and to know that no, no words are ever wasted. I promise you your words, your time is never wasted, even if that's how it might feel for you right now.

In Summary

So keep writing. That seems like good advice to leave on. Keep writing. So thank you so much for listening, for sharing rating the podcast and for your feedback. As always. If you have a question you'd like answered, please reach out to me on Instagram. You'll find me at the handle at JFGibsonWriter or through my website, and you can just search for Jodie Gibson, author and you'll find me. So until next week, happy writing. That's all for this week. Thank you so much for joining me.