Things I'm Learning While Writing a Novel
Writing what you know is actually pretty fantastic advice, after all.
Back in December, I posted this note:
I am pleased to say that I have accomplished this so far. Yes, yes, I know it’s only February; let me rest on my laurels while I feel triumphant. And I keenly feel that I have every reason to feel triumphant, even though I have not finished writing my novel and all notions of publishing said novel are still yet very far away.
Here’s why.
I have had many ideas for books, but never finished any of them.
Well, okay, I haven’t finished this one, as I said above. So allow me to continue.
I’m taking a different approach to writing this particular idea, and this approach has been truly revolutionary for my writing. I feel as though I’m an archeologist excavating ruins from the dirt—except instead of ruins, I’m excavating a story.
And it is thrilling. A story is unfolding that I didn’t expect to write. In many ways, it’s so out of left field for me, yet still draws from material I’m so deeply familiar with through life experience. I asked God to give me a story to write, and boy, is He delivering on that prayer.
I thought it might be fun to document a little bit of the process along the way, so here we are, a month and a half into 2026, and here’s my first update. Fair warning: I’ll be keeping a substantial amount of this behind a paywall, partly for privacy reasons! But there will be some basic updates before the paywall for all those who want to casually come along for the ride.
The Basic Stats
Genre: Mystery
Word count: 19,239
Chapter count: 5 finished, 5 incomplete
Plot breakthroughs: At least three, potentially four
Storyline coherency: Around 56%. The early chapters are gonna be so drastically different when I do my first rewrite.
Cups of tea consumed: Countless
Favorite writing tea: I’ve been on a rotation between green tea, decaf chai, red raspberry leaf, and chamomile. However, I’d say I’ve consumed more chamomile tea while writing this than any other. You might think this will be a calm book because chamomile is relaxing. However, chamomile only puts me in a flow state. This book is not calm. In fact, it’s growing increasingly gritty. At least, gritty for me. I’m not a very gritty person. My husband had me watch the Batman trilogy with him a couple years ago and I think I’m still psychologically damaged from it.
Favorite writing snack: Again, hard to narrow down, but probably popcorn. Banana chips come in second, with chocolate chips in third place.
Lesson #1: Write what you know is actually amazing advice
“Write what you know!” they say, and I laugh. What do I know, like really know? I look back on my life for inspiration and laugh again. Classical music? How to be a high school band geek 101? Best ways to post on Instagram? How to successfully flirt with a boy in the middle of Mass and wind up marrying him?? Idk, guys. Write what you know seems like silly advice when you look at my life, lol!
Then I was on a walk one day, thinking about for the millionth time that my longest standing dream has been to write a book, and finally I was just like, “Ok God, if you want me to write a book, give me a book to write.”
The Lord does not always drop answers out of the sky. Wouldn’t life be more straightforward if He did! More straightforward, but probably a lot less sanctifying, and I guess the whole point of life is to be sanctified, so it’s probably good that He doesn’t just drop answers out of the sky. Also, that’s very vending machine coded, and as I told my 9th grade CCD class a few years ago, “God’s not a vending machine!!”
On this occasion, however, He did drop an answer out of the sky. Not literally, but metaphorically. I shudder to think what a literal answer out of the sky might have looked like.
