19 Dec 2023

My Experience As A Future Author First Lessons

It's been seven months since the site I'm an author was launched. Seven months of blog articles, interviews with authors and publishers, recommendations of books and publishing houses, introductions to writing training courses. Some will have noticed: for most blog articles, by way of conclusion, I share my experience as an author. In fragments, I share with you my writing rhythm, the obstacles overcome, the habits adopted and the difficulties which persist. But, until now, I have not yet dedicated an article to my personal experience. By talking with some, I understood that my experience as an aspiring author could help others because our paths may be similar.

1/ Accept that you don’t know how to write, before learning how to do it

Self-taught since my college years, having already written three manuscripts alone, I thought I knew how to write. When I was younger and good at French, I got compliments from teachers for my writing and dissertations and, above all, I was passionate about the stories I told. Three finished manuscripts all the same, that’s something! But that was not enough. It's not enough. Writing in school and writing for others have nothing to do with each other; between writing for yourself and writing to be read, there is a world of difference. I learned it over the years: the pages piled up without me observing any progress in my style, the scope of my dialogues or even the structure of my stories. Alone, I moved forward blindly. I needed professional advice and long-term support, not a few one-off workshops which give the illusion of teaching the art of writing. We stimulate the imagination, we share good times, but the methods and good practices take much more time to be taught and assimilated.

Encouraged by those close to me, I decided to change my mind: I might as well tackle another format and try to gain some visibility among professionals. By participating in short story competitions. In September 2023, I won first prize in the Brandon trophies, category Novel : it was the opportunity that I was missing. It was finally by starting the specialized cycle Roman of Brandon et Compagnie - a three-year training course - that I realized the obvious : I didn't know how to write. Or rather, I didn't know how to write for others and I was still far from being able to bring a quality manuscript to life. 
The first months were difficult to the extent that I first had to accept this observation but also the mountain of lessons that I was about to climb. However, accompanied by Caroline Nicolas, I had no doubts. Throughout the sessions, I was reassured: no one is born with a pen in their hand or a perfect mastery of literary grammar. They are things that can be learned, so I rolled up my sleeves.

2/ Writing, a question of habit

Second step: impose yourself, then enjoy, writing every day. This was one of the first recommendations of the cycle Roman by Brandon et Compagnie that I have been applying for two years. In complete transparency, and because I keep a fairly precise account, I refrain from writing only two to four days per month depending on my level of activity or fatigue. My maximum is four days off per month, not one more. By sticking to such discipline we realize the truth of this adage known to all: when you want, you can. I arranged my schedule almost effortlessly as the stakes were so important to me. 

I write most often early in the morning, and I enjoy meeting with myself. It comes close to a meditation as this hour resembles a bubble, sheltered from the alarm bells, the smells of buttered bread and the first email notifications. 
Regularity in writing has brought me several benefits, I have already been able to mention this subject in another article a>.

3/ Have patience, demonstrate stubbornness

Writing and publishing a novel takes a long time. Writing and getting a first novel published takes even longer. Allow ten years without support, two to three times less perhaps with a long-term training cycle like those offered by Brandon et Compagnie, the Bing workshop or the Les Mots school.

Of course, there are exceptions and these, when they reach publication, are all the more visible. But let's not let them dazzle us and forget what is required of the majority of aspiring authors: patience, a lot of patience, and obstinacy.

For my part, my first novel — currently being written and planned for the Brandon Editions catalog — is already four years old. Two writing it alone in my corner and two years already of the Novel cycle. I am in the third and final year of this training course. In total, it will be between five and six years of daily work, or almost, on a single manuscript. Yes, our characters, we have to appreciate them because we have to spend time with them! Often much more than with certain relatives.

It's beyond a marathon, and yet the exercise is not unknown to me. I ran the Paris marathon in 2023 after intensive training for more than three months. It was long and absorbing, but it’s in no way comparable to writing. Writing a novel and getting it published is on a different scale. It’s a long-distance race and, to reach the finish, you have to appreciate every step. And never take anything for granted.

Integrating the best practices taught takes time. In practice, we are always in danger of “falling back” into certain of our faults: too many adjectives, too many descriptions, empty dialogues or even inconsistencies in the structure of our stories. So, personally, I keep in mind that I still have a lot of things to learn and that this will be the case throughout my future career as an author.

4/ Appreciate each step, for the effort it requires and for the progress it provides 

I am no longer the (aspiring) author that I was two or three years ago. It's strange to write it and perhaps even more strange to read it, but it is indeed the case. The way I structure my sentences, the way I prepare to write a scene or even a dialogue is no longer the same. Today, I would even be tempted to compare my first manuscripts to note-taking, but I am probably being too harsh. 

I enjoy writing all the more today as I have a better mastery of the tool that is the French language and the writing methods that I have been able to test and experience in recent years. As for an instrument where we enjoy playing all the more the more we know its chords, where music theory is no longer a constraint but a base on which to build. 

There are still many months of work left on my first novel, but it’s a prospect that excites me because I plan to enjoy each writing session. To become the author I aspire to be.

Pre-orders "The Pavements of Forgiveness" : register for the launch

Publication is planned between November 2022 and January 2023. In collaboration with my publishing house, Brandon & Company, the objective is to establish an audience of lucky and curious people for the first printing (ecological and commercial issue for the printing of copies).