I joined Beehaw specifically hoping to get in on the ground floor of the growing writing community here, but I have to admit I haven’t had much to say.
So, for the other folks checking this community once a day or so to see what’s being posted, “Hi!”
I’m enthusiastically nearing the end of the first draft of my first novel, and pretty excited to jump into revisions once that’s done.
I aspire to be traditionally published, though I’ve heard how unlikely that is for a first novel over and over, so I’m (primarily) viewing this first novel as a learning experience, and it’s very much been one of those.
I’m interested to hear where others are at.
Whatever is going to work for you will probably be specific to you, but I think a good place to start is to read more stories. Try to nail down what it is you want to achieve with your story, and then find other stories that have succeeded at that, at least in your opinion. There are rules and tropes and formulas to storytelling that will make it easier to entertain readers, but at the end of the day, if you don’t like what you wrote, and you didn’t enjoy writing it, then I don’t think it’s worth it.
In my experience, once you start reading a lot, you start thinking more like a writer. You’ll be watching a movie or a show and be thinking “How would I write this scene, how would I describe this to someone who wasn’t watching it, and how would I do that in a way that they got the same feeling I got when I was watching it?” or “How would I improve this story, in what ways did it fail to give me the feeling I was seeking?” or “How could I incorporate some of these same narrative devices in my story, what is it that I like about this and how can I convince people that they like my story for the same reasons?”
You’ll especially start asking yourselves these questions when you know you have a good story, and you’re obsessed with getting your story on to paper. You’ll start filtering everything you experience through the lens of that obsession, and every piece of media you consume will become a piece of the collage you create.
At least that’s how it is for me, maybe you’re completely different.