I’m just thrilled this week to welcome Eleanor Brown, author of Weird Sisters, to 1st Books (and very excited we’ll be participating in the Gaithersburg Book Festival together). If you haven’t already heard about this wonderful novel, where have you been? It hit the New York Times Bestseller list in its first few weeks out. For good reason. As Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand author Helen Simonson says, “What a joy to read. What a VOICE. The Weird Sisters is family drama dissected by verbal scalpel. If wit and language could protect against growing old, these bewitching sisters might never have to grow up.” And you’re going to love Eleanor’s story about her “first” novel. – Meg
Every time something is written about The Weird Sisters that refers to it as my “first novel,” I cringe.
Here’s the thing: it’s not my first novel.
It’s my fifth.
And that’s only counting the ones I managed to finish – there are pages and pages of notes and drafts of novels that never got past the first few chapters.
Maybe I’m a late bloomer, but it took me a long, long time to learn how to write a novel, and even longer to write one that was any good.
Part of this is definitely my fault – I spent a lot of time trying to write in genres I thought would sell, trying to write stories I thought would sell, instead of writing the story I wanted to tell in the style my heart wanted it told in. But I can’t criticize myself too much for that – playing around with different voices and the rules of different genres was part of what helped me find my own voice.
Here was the hardest part of the whole process, though: recognizing they weren’t any good, but getting back up to do it all over again anyway.
Writing is hard, you know? And I think there’s a tendency, when we’re done, to rush right out and share it with the world – friends, family, the internet, agents, editors – just because the darn thing is finally finished.
I did that with one of my manuscripts – I knew it wasn’t as good as it could have been. I knew it had inconsistencies and plot holes big enough to drive a bus through and was in desperate need of a few months of lying fallow while I worked on something else and then came back to it with fresh eyes and an honest heart. But I had set some ridiculous deadline for myself, and I think I knew, deep down, that it was going to be hard, hard work to whip that baby into shape, and I just couldn’t face it.
I’m lucky that I only sent it to one person, and that one person rejected it (she would have been a fool not to), but took the time to read the entire thing, complimenting me on what I did right, and detailing what I did wrong.
It was a hugely embarrassing experience – I felt bad for having wasted her time, especially since she was so incredibly gracious about the whole thing.
But here’s what I did:
I read her comments carefully.
I wrote her a note thanking her for her time.
I sat down and started writing again.
And that time, I wrote the book I really wanted to write. That time, I listened to my heart, and thought about the things in my life I wanted to understand, and I didn’t think about whether or not the book would sell.
I just wrote.
And, ironically, that became The Weird Sisters – the novel that did sell.
I’m not alone in having my debut novel not being my first – it happens all the time, and there’s no shame in it. No one expects someone who has only watched other people play the piano to sit right down and knock off a few sonatas. That’s entertaining, but it’s not impressive.
What is impressive is watching the concert pianist who has been practicing hours and hours, every day, for years, who has raged and cried and threatened to give it all up, who has played the same measures over and over and over again until they were exactly right. That’s what makes a brilliant pianist.
That’s what makes a wonderful writer. – Eleanor
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“…instead of writing the story I wanted to tell in the style my heart wanted it told in.”
This really resonated with me. I studied creative writing in college and my senior thesis was a novella. Looking back, I think the reason I didn’t keep working on it after graduation is that it wasn’t the story my heart wanted at the time.
It took me a year after graduating to start a new book, but by then I’d learned how to write on my own, in my own voice, and not for a grade or school credit.
Thanks for sharing your story!
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I absolutely love this blog post!I am on my fifth novel — I got an agent with my fourth, lost her, and got another, who hasn’t been able to sell it despite wonderful efforts on her part. The fifth is going to be IT, though.
Meg, thanks so much for having me!
Natalia – I totally agree. I think if writing doesn’t feel good, there’s usually a reason for it. And congrats on your agent!
Judy – Thanks, love. Here’s a glass raised to number five!
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Love this post, Eleanor & Meg! Thanks so much. I think we could all practically climb to the 2nd floor on our teething-ring novels. I wrote my first novel in 7th grade, about my Social Studies teacher, whom I had a mad crush on. He rudely got married halfway through the writing. I gave the book to the happy couple for their wedding present. My teacher thought that was great. His new wife didn’t. And somehow, it took me 20 more years and two more novel drafts before I became S.E. Hinton (a little late.) xo Jenna.
Jenna – HA! I love “teething-ring novels!”
I desperately wanted to be S.E. Hinton, too. But that’s okay. I wrote the book I was meant to write, when I was meant to write it. So did she. And I do have to say you came far closer to it than I.
Thank you so much — to both of you — for that post. As an aspiring writer, it’s inspiring and encouraging to read about a successful novelist’s hard work to get to where she is.
I just recently saw this quote and thought it was relevant to this entry: “I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan
> I wrote my first novel in 7th grade, about my Social Studies teacher, whom I had a mad crush on.
I want to read this one, Jenna!
Robin, that quote reminds me of the Edison lightbulb one.
I suspect-or hope-that all the writing helped you find what you wanted to write. I am at that stage I want to write, I feel compelled to write and yet, the story waiting to be told has not been found. Bits and pieces of stories, maybe, but not “the story.” Congratulations on your persistence and your success.
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Great story! And congrats on the debut!
TBH, I think you guys who sell your nth novel are the lucky ones. I’ve just sold my first (finished) novel, and now I’m having to write two more to fulfill my contract, without any experience to fall back on. Luckily I’ve done a couple of awesome online courses, so I’m not entirely unprepared, but it’s still pretty scary! So don’t stress if it takes you a few tries to get it right – you’ll thank your lucky stars for the practice one day
I just got my first (eighth written) novel published, This Is What It Smells Like. People ask me, “Is this your first novel?” What am I supposed to say? “No, actually I’ve written seven others, but I’ve spent the past twenty years trying to get someone to read them.” It amazes me that I’ve written well over one million words to finally get to the ones a publisher thought were good enough. Let’s hope the public agrees.
Makes me think of the Outliers theory of needing to have 10,000 hours in before you achieve success. Congrats, Cathy!