How many of you have given up on your first novel?

RG570 · Sep 5, 2006

I've recently come to the conclusion that my first novel isn't salable. I still like it for what it is, but I've given up on trying to sell it. But it's not like I've been discouraged by rejection. I just didn't know anything when I wrote it and knowing what I know now, I wouldn't want anyone to read it.

Has anyone else come to a similar realization about their first novel? Is it very common for successful writers to write garbage at first, or do the good ones write marketable material from the get go?

willietheshakes · Sep 5, 2006

I gave up on my first three or four.

The first ones languished unsubmitted, unloved, and unsaleable.

The last one met with a few favourable responses, but I put aside the changes I wanted to make while I wrote the next one. THAT one got published last month, and is a bestseller here in Canada.

I thank heartily whatever forces conspired to have me leave those first few behind -- I shudder to think about how bad they are now. I may come back to the last unpublished one -- it's a good piece of work. Well, parts of it are. I may just scavenge those parts...

badducky · Sep 5, 2006

If I gave up on my unsaleable first novel, I'd have to send my advance back.

Not happening.

Never give up, never surrender!

jchines · Sep 5, 2006

It's very, very, very common. Most "first novels" are actually 4th or 5th or 6th novels. (Mine was my 4th, I believe).

The only reason I haven't burned or deleted every last copy of my first novel is so that, if I ever start to get too full of myself, my wife can dig it out and wave it in front of my face to bring me back down to earth. Hard.

IReidandWrite · Sep 5, 2006

My first novel, when I was in 5th grade, was about a pencil fighting an eraser. I think I gave the pencil the name Eagle. Eraserboy was never named.

It was a stupid idea, so I gave up on it.

SpookyWriter · Sep 5, 2006

I gave up on my first novel after my second rejection letter.

kristie911 · Sep 5, 2006

I refuse to give up yet. I've got about 30 rejections but still have a partial out there with a promised exclusive. But if this ends in a rejection, I still have places to go with it. That doesn't mean I won't ever give up on it...I'm just not ready to yet.

And I guess it's not technically my first novel...but it's my first finished novel. I started and quit on several of them before I finished this one.

nicegrrl · Sep 5, 2006

I gave up on my first novel and I dont know if I will ever come back to it. I never submitted it although it is a fun story and it felt fun to complete.

K1P1 · Sep 5, 2006

I think I read that Joyce Carol Oates wrote novel after novel-as a child and teenager I believe. When she finished one, she'd turn the paper over and write the next one on the back of the sheets. She did this constantly for years before she started writing for publication.

Of course, I read it a long time ago and I may have all the details wrong, including the author.

Useless information, eh?

kristin724 · Sep 5, 2006

I started my first novel in sixth grade! I've gone back to it over the years and lengthened it and changed it and redid it. I think the last time was 3 years ago. I've moved on to many projects during and since, but I always say I'm going to turn back to that trunker someday and make it a classic.

It's ironic that I dream to have a best seller before I'm 30, but when that blockbuster comes, I will use the freedom to go backwards and play with my kiddie novel. Go fig.

UrsusMinor · Sep 5, 2006

Project nachonaco said:
My first novel, when I was in 5th grade, was about a pencil fighting an eraser. I think I gave the pencil the name Eagle. Eraserboy was never named.

It was a stupid idea, so I gave up on it.

Actually, I think it's a better premise than I've seen in most of the novels I've read recently. Maybe you should revive it.

Shadow_Ferret · Sep 5, 2006

No. I have not given up on my first novel. I think it's a great story, it just needs some heavy editing and I'm lazy.

triceretops · Sep 5, 2006

Well, I've actually dropped 12 novels in the past 17 years, because I really didn't try to push them hard enough. I have four completed now that I will nurture until I'm told to go hang myself.

tri

Southern_girl29 · Sep 5, 2006

kristin724 said:
It's ironic that I dream to have a best seller before I'm 30, but when that blockbuster comes, I will use the freedom to go backwards and play with my kiddie novel. Go fig.

I used to dream that I would be published by the time I was 25 and a bestseller by 30. It ain't gonna happen for me. I wasn't published by 25 and I've got 11 months until I'm 30. Now, I'm just hoping to have an agent by that time.

I started my first real attempt at a novel in high school. I never finished it. My first finished novel is sitting on a disk and I don't want anyone to see it. It's awful. My second novel needs some rewrites, but I came upon the idea for my current WIP, so it's just waiting for me to do the rewrites. I'm not really sure it's marketable. I have a novella that I know would do well (or at least, I have a really good feeling about it), but I can't find anyone who will publish it.

nicegrrl · Sep 5, 2006

Actually, my current novel revives my very first novel, which I started when I was 17 and didnt complete. So I guess I have not given up on my first novel. Odd, Im on my third try and this is the first time I believe I will get to the point where I can even submit it.

nicegrrl · Sep 5, 2006

Haha, Im joining the club. I just turned 24 and I hope to have a bestseller out by the time I am 30.

Popeyesays · Sep 5, 2006

I counted them up, 26 No thank yous or no replies. But it got picked up on the 27th by a small press that some folks said I should not have gone with. I couldn't not give it it's chance, even if it won't sell big. After all, who knows?

Regards, Scott

RedWombat · Sep 5, 2006

I gave up on mine. It was finished, I had acquired a couple of very nice rejection slips (which I did not treasure at the time, not realizing that a page of handwritten text is a rare gift!) and then I got busy and discouraged and stopped bothering.

Three or four years later, the small press that'd had some luck publishing the print volume of my webcomic said "Soooo...that did really well for us...do you have anything else we could take a look at?" and I said "Well...err...I guess you could take a look at this thing, if somebody's got a strong stomach and promises not to think less of me..."

Volume 1 is due out soon, although I still have a hard time taking the whole idea seriously (and you'd think after the agonizing editing and re-writing and beating my head against the wall that wouldn't be a problem!) Granted the size of the print runs, I will never, ever make the best-seller list with it, mind you, but it's a lot farther than I had ever expected it to go, and the occasional check is nothing to sneeze at.

I am both desperately proud and desperately embarassed by it, but I am told this is a common affliction in first novels.

ChaosTitan · Sep 5, 2006

My first novel won't give up on me. Once again, it has demanded a fresh coat of paint, shiny new hub caps, and a vanity plate. It may finally be time to send this puppy off to the races.

PeeDee · Sep 5, 2006

I wrote my first novel when I was eight. I found the battered old copy of it recently and word-counted it, and it was eighty-thousand words long. It had a beginning, middle, and an ending. It had definite characters, and definite storylines.

It was by no means good, but it was finished and I'm proud of that.

I never give up on any project, be it novel or be it short story, until it's finished, because I just can't judge the whole of it if only half of it is done. The only exception is if the novel/story breaks so badly somewhere that I can't fix it. Even then, it just goes to one side and I dig it out later and look at it again, to see if I know what's wrong yet.

Scrawler · Sep 5, 2006

I guess I could say I gave up on my "original" first novel because basically it sucked. I am rewriting and revising it now. It still feels like my first novel because the characters and portions of the plot it remain. With each small piece of rewriting, I can understand a little more about what made it suck-- and change it.

James D. Macdonald · Sep 5, 2006

I take out my first novel from time to time and look at it. It has parts I'm fond of, but it's ... no, I wouldn't want anyone else to read it.

(Ernest Hemingway threw his first novel over the side of the ship during an Atlantic crossing, an example more writers should follow.)

PeeDee · Sep 5, 2006

James D. Macdonald said:
(Ernest Hemingway threw his first novel over the side of the ship during an Atlantic crossing, an example more writers should follow.)

If nothing else, it gives you an excuse to take a ship across the Atlantic.

sunandshadow · Sep 5, 2006

I started my first novel at the end of 8th grade, worked on it through 9th and maybe 10th grade, then realized it had no plot and the politics in it were too naive to be believable. So then I started a fan novel, then realized that fan novels were unpublishable and the plot coincidences in it were too naive to be believable. This cycle has repeated several times with slightly different problems each time. A few times I actually finished things - an original anime script and a fan novella. The good thing is, I seem to have hit all the major problems at least once by now (11 years after I started), so with my current project the challenge of making myself actually sit and write seems to be the only one left between me and a manuscript which is at least theoretically publishable.

RG570 · Sep 5, 2006

Hm. So I have permission to suck for the first serious attempt? I guess you just hear too much about the success stories, and not much about the good writers who had to work at it for a while before turning out anything decent.

How many of you have given up on your first novel?

RG570

willietheshakes

Gentleman. Scholar. Bastard.

badducky

No Time For Chitchat, Kemosabe.

jchines

Got the hang of it, here

IReidandWrite

SpookyWriter

kristie911

Happy to be here

nicegrrl

K1P1

Procrastination is its own reward

kristin724

UrsusMinor

Shadow_Ferret

Court Jester

triceretops

Southern_girl29

nicegrrl

nicegrrl

Popeyesays

Now departed. Rest in peace, Scott, from all of us

RedWombat

Runs With Scissors

ChaosTitan

Around

PeeDee

Where's my tea, please...?

Scrawler

Bored fanatic

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle

PeeDee

Where's my tea, please...?

sunandshadow

Impractical Fantasy Animal

RG570