thoughts (2)—writing mistakes i made in 2024

To be honest, I believe I actually made this mistake in 2023 as well, but especially in 2024. Partly because I was desperate, and partly because I am a rookie when it comes to fiction long form writing.

The rookie mistake I made was that I sent my first drafts out to publishers for consideration without attempting to do any kind of revisions. I’m now at a place where I realize this is a terrible mistake, bad bad bad decision. Not because of the publishers, no no I could care less, but because of my taste. When I went back to skim through my first drafts which I had so mindlessly began to send out, I realized how not good the writing was, how underdeveloped the plots were, how my low level of skill was on full display.

I made this mistake with two books, one a short story collection—When I Die — which I wrote in 2023/2024, and the other a novella—Akunna (Book one of the Age of Ekwensu Series) — which I wrote in early 2024.

Now, my preferred approach is to get the full first draft out of my system of course, then do about four to five revisions if its long form (e.g a novel) before sending out anywhere, or handing it over to a professional. And for short form (e.g short stories, novellas) do as much as five to seven revisions for my own satisfaction.

There are just things you can’t see clearly, or improve upon, if you’re unable to step back from the work and return to it with fresh eye over and over and over and over again.

I can become a great writer if I’m willing to be patient and stick to my process, improve my taste and meet my own standards first. It’s very cringe to know you have subpar work out there for others to look at, almost feels like being naked in public. It’s disrespectful to everyone involved, especially myself. Going forward, I will continue to allow myself take as much time as I need to go through my process of revisions. I can wait and I will be thorough to the best of my ability.