Fiction, from the First Draft Forward: Cheerleading, Sans the Pompoms

By L.L. McKinney

How is everyone doing with those deadlines? Meeting them? Making them at the very least? Good. I wrote about one of my own major deadlines last week, which was August 22nd. I aimed to finish the first draft of Heritage Blade: Awakening and I did! Sort of. I was unable to finish a full first draft but I did complete a detailed outline of the rest of the story. I’m exceedingly pleased with myself. When you hit your deadlines, celebrate! Ya dun good, as they say. Throw a small party, even if you’re the only one dancing. Cook your favorite meal, watch your favorite movie, read your favorite book, and most of all congratulate yourself. It doesn’t have to be about boasting, and it’s one of the things that’ll keep you sane in all this craziness. Be your own cheerleader.

When one hears the word cheerleader it usually conjures the image of a teenage girl wearing a multicolored uniform and waving bunches of plastic strips in the air while shouting “gimme a—[insert random letter of the alphabet.]” I don’t suggest running around in a costume while spelling out your own name, unless that’s what you want to do then by all means go for it. What I’m getting at is a point made over and over again in the writing world; no one wants this more than you. No one wants a book to sell more than the person who wrote it, making him or her their own number one fan and own personal pep rally.

I’m fairly certain that most of us weren’t given as much encouragement as we would have liked when we started taking our writing seriously. Let me ask a question to those of you who’ve said out loud what you wanted to do with your life, who’ve told other people your dreams of being a writer instead of a doctor or a lawyer. When you made that declaration were there any fanfares or popping champagne corks? Maybe a few hurrahs or prideful claps on the shoulder? Yeah, me neither. Just a couple funny looks and one incredulous “really?” For those of you who did get that instant, full support, keep the folks who gave it close to you.

Writing isn’t considered a legitimate profession to most people until you start making money at it, and since this column covers the goings on that follow finishing the first draft of book one, it’s safe to assume there are no paychecks in the near future. People outside the literary world see wanting to be a writer like being a singer, or an actor, it’s an unrealistic dream, and less than 1% of those who reach for it make it. Well, hearing that kind talk is more than enough to get people to give up, and that’s when you need someone backing your play, encouraging you from the sidelines, and unless you’re incredibly lucky it might not be those closest to you.

For instance, when I started my first novel, my family didn’t really care about my writing. Let me be clear, I’m not saying they weren’t supportive, because they were. They patted me on the back, smiled and nodded when they could have put me down, told me I was wasting my time or any number of things. I am grateful that they just let me tinker in my corner, but it was easy to see that they couldn’t be all that bothered with my scribbles. Other things came first in their minds. For instance, if they called and asked “Are you busy?” and I responded, “Yes, I’m writing,” that was not a sufficient answer. To them, busy means doing homework, cleaning something, maybe even watching television, but writing? Nope.

If we don’t want to fall victim to the nay saying, we need to cheer ourselves on. We need to remind ourselves of why we do what we do in the first place. Is it to please someone else? It is for the love of the craft? Whatever reason we decided to pick up a pen instead of a briefcase or stethoscope needs to be at the forefront of our minds when we’re faced with the heaps of negativity that come with being what we are. We have to constantly build ourselves up, making it that much harder for the world to tear us down, and then we take it one step further.

If you think about it, excitement is infectious, isn’t it? It works just like yawning, one person does it and it sets off a chain reaction. (I’d bet money that someone reading this is yawning right now.) If you get a bunch of people who love the same movie, the same music, or the same actor in the same room, and get them talking about it, they’ll just feed off of one another’s delight like lunch time at an all you can eat buffet. That shared joy is one of the best feelings in the world. It means that something important to you matters to someone else. I am sure there have been moments for every writer when all you want is for someone to be half as enthusiastic about your story as well. If we just hang in there and keep from buckling under the weight of pessimism, we can set off our own chain reactions. We can get people excited about our writing just like a cheerleader whipping a crowd into a roar for the home team. Sans the pompoms.

“Life cannot defeat a writer who is in love with writing; for life itself is a writer's love until death.”-Edna Ferber

Happy writing.

L.L. McKinney is a freelance writer, a published poet and a playwright. As an active member of First Tuesdays and YA Lit Chat, she is currently seeking representation for her young adult paranormal urban fantasy, Swayed.