I never considered myself a writer, so the massive challenge of writing a first novel in 2025 came as a shock to me. So, the decision to write a novel in 2025 was as much a shock to me as it was to everyone else.
I have journaled in the past; I even had a blog for a very short period. On occasion, people who saw those scribblings would note that they weren’t as terrible as they had expected. I guess that encouragement sat tucked away somewhere, growing out of sight.
The RPG Origin Story
I love video games, and like many people, the launch of Baldur’s Gate 3 was exciting (I promise this is relevant!). In the buildup to that release, I did some writing.
My friends and I were planning a cooperative playthrough, so in anticipation, our characters needed backstories. Being me, I took it way too far and wrote a short story about my character. It was called The Wolf and the Knife.
And honestly? It was terrible.
I made all the mistakes anyone who has no idea how to write a novel would make. But you know what? I’m still very proud of it. I got absorbed into the process. I didn’t write again after that for a year, maybe longer. Work and life just got in the way.
The Spark
Then, in October 2024, a story concept popped into my head. That isn’t uncommon for me, but this time, I thought: Okay, let’s actually do something with it.
I got lost in the world-building. By the end of the year, I had a nicely fleshed-out world, but not much else. I had done a test draft of a prologue, and it was mostly bad.
The “52 Chapters” Myth
As most people do when looking ahead to a new year, I set myself some goals. For reasons unknown to me, I decided: Let’s write this thing.
My bad math, and even worse knowledge of writing a first novel, led to a simple calculation: there are 52 weeks in a year. If I can write a chapter a week, by the end of the year, I’ll have a book.
And you know what? I do.
But the journey from that decision to here has been massive. I went from learning how to structure sentences to learning what outlining is (and realizing that world-building is not outlining).
I set off in the new year, watching YouTube lectures on writing, and started Week 1 of 52 with Chapter 1. I quickly worked out that outlining was a necessity. I backtracked slightly to establish the structure. The whole outlining process is its own journey; I could write a whole blog post about just that.
The short version? I was very bad at it; now I’m much better.
The Reality of Writing a First Novel
When I started writing a first novel, I assumed the hard part would be the ideas. I was wrong. The hard part was the discipline.
That “Chapter a Week” goal sounded easy on paper, but life rarely adheres to a schedule. Some weeks, the words flowed. Other weeks, writing a first novel felt like pulling teeth. I had to learn that a finished draft is better than a perfect first chapter.
The Twist in the Tale
By June, I had a solid outline and a whole Act drafted. Then, I was made redundant.
Losing a job is never part of the plan. However, to be fair, I was fortunate enough to be financially secure enough to take a moment to breathe. So I did. I decided to take the rest of the year to focus entirely on learning the craft and writing a first novel.
There are still a million things I need to learn, and probably another million I don’t know I need to learn yet. But as 2025 closes out, I have a manuscript. It is a novel that has been through multiple stages of edits and revisions and is looking ready to be published in early 2026.
It has been an exciting process and a nice change of pace from the career I had been doggedly following for the past decade or more. And honestly, I think (however mediocre it might be) I’m extremely proud of Whispers from the Machine and what it is shaping up to be.
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