Lessons I Learned from Dragonchild

Last October, I started a novel called Dragonchild. My last novel had been terrible. Absolutely plot-less. And, of course, the plot bunnies abandoned me right when I needed them. A few months later, though, I'm partway through a second draft. Dragonchild taught me quite a few lessons. Here are the biggest ones--

1-Sometimes clinging to the first idea you get is a bad way to go. But sometimes it's a gateway to something amazing.
     Dragonchild came after finally letting go of the shreds of my first novel. I had no idea what to do next. I spent hours searching my mind for ideas and Pinterest for writing prompts. I finally found an image that sparked my imagination. It was barely a shred, but I clung to it. And now I have a novel.
    Great things can come out of tiny things. Mediocre things. Sometimes the smallest seeds grow into the most beautiful flowers.Your idea may be hardly anything, but work with it.

2- Let it evolve.
    Speaking of working with the idea, let your story deviate from the original idea. Dragonchild was originally a dystopian romance. By the time I typed The End, it was a fantasy about the daughter of a dragon and a human. Your idea will change when you flesh it out. Let it. Work with it. It won't be perfect; no first draft is ever perfect. But it will be so much better.

3- Don't stifle your characters.
    Case in point--Evanna, my main character. I'd originally typed her as an ISFJ. I tried to make her stick with it. She didn't like being forced in a box, resulting in writer's block. I was luckily able to figure out that she wanted to be an INFJ. Once I let her do her own thing, writing went so much better.
     It can be hard to hand the reins to your characters. You have your own ideas of who you want them to be. But they have theirs, too. Once you let them tell their own stories, they--and you--will be much happier.

4-Challenge yourself.
     I was going to do NaNoWriMo for Dragonchild, but that 50,000 word count goal just seemed so daunting. The longest thing I'd ever written before was only 30,000. Hesitantly, I signed up anyway, but decided to only go for 35,000 words, in addition to the 8,000 or so I had already. About five days in, I realized that was too easy. 600 words a day wasn't challenging me at all. I decided to take the plunge and go for all 50,000. I completed it three days early, and the extra words provided some of the coolest things in the story. You'll never get anywhere as a writer if you don't challenge yourself. So much of writing is growth, and you'll never achieve that if you always set the bar low.

5- You can do it.
     No matter how much you have to delete, how often you get blocked, how slow the going seems, you've got this. You've done something few people are ever brave enough to do--to write a novel. You can do this. If you push through, then you will succeed. I believe in you.