The Value of Writing a Crappy Novel

My first attempt at writing a novel was a disaster. My “thriller” wasn’t very thrilling. In fact, The Wolverine was a crappy novel, but I found value in the process of writing it.

Prior to writing The Wolverine, my fiction writing was limited to short stories. Unsurprisingly, writing a novel is considerably more challenging than writing short stories. There are more characters and more events. The plot is more complex, and often there are subplots. There are more details that the author must organize and keep in mind when writing. When I began, I wasn’t certain that I was up to the challenge of writing a novel-length story.

Completing The Wolverine showed me I could write a novel. Along the way, I learned how to organize a story and keep the details in mind. In short, I developed a process for writing novels. And that was the primary value of writing a crappy novel.

I considered re-writing the novel to make it more thrilling. However, I concluded it would require more time than I wanted to invest. Although the novel wasn’t worthy of publication, it served as valuable practice.

Like any skill, writing requires practice. However, writing novels requires a different skill set than writing short stories and nonfiction. To develop those skills, one must practice. The Wolverine was my first practice, and is often the case, my initial attempt was less than ideal.

I’ve previously written that we should accept the fact our first draft won’t be perfect. We must first get the ideas on paper, and then we can improve the draft. That was essentially my attitude while writing The Wolverine. Someday I may rewrite the novel. But in the meantime, I recognize the value of writing a crappy novel.