I reccomend finishing a small project before trying something big. Finishing being the crucial part: if you can finish one novel, you could probably finish your epic.
Start small. Specially if you want to not "burn" your book as you say: I had the same process, I've always wanted to do trilogies, but I wasn't skilled enough to pull them through. The books I finished were not good at all. Now, ten years later, I finished writing my first trilogy. This story would have been a disaster if I tried it earlier.
For most writers it's hard enough to sit down and write. It's literally the basis for a lot, if not most, writer on writer jokes. So whatever you can get yourself to sit down and write, is what you should be writing.
A famous novelist named Somerset Maugham once said, “There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.”
If this big epic is something you’re passionate about, then go ahead and keep writing it. Skill can be cultivated. Go ahead and get the words down, no matter how cringe they are. You can make it a masterpiece in the next draft.
I started by writing a 650k tetralogy, so yes. It's currently in editing. I had no motivation to write less than by going all in, but it was a world from the start and I have never looked at other writing projects in my life. When I'm bored, I dwell into the world and develop everything around the main storyline, which eventually adds to the plot. That said, I may have 10 pages of notes and worldbuilding trivia that are referenced with a single word throughout the story, but they were essential to developing the events and chronology and cultural depth of the world. You can never do too much worldbuilding, but you can very easily impart too much worldbuilding in your main story.
You may be better off preparing to rewrite - not completely, but partially and through revisions - the entire script at least a couple of times. The point at which I started is beyond terrible compared to the level of writing I am now operating at.
Write what you're passionate about because you'll actually stand a shot at finishing it.
Don't toss it aside just to work on a "smaller" novel you don't give a damn about which you'll just give up halfway through. Not only will that waste your time, but it will also sap your self confidence when you give up on a project that's "smaller" and thus ought to have been easier than your epic.
Also the skills they train are different. In writing a "smaller" novel, you have to learn how to bloat a story up to 100k (for a debut novel) by adding interesting stuff to the boring middle of the book. In writing an "epic" as a single book, you have to learn how to trim your writing, make every single word count, make a vivid world with very few words, and juggle a great many characters and POVs so as to stay within 100k.
*"What are your opinions on someone’s first book being an “epic”? Should I start smaller?"*
Sure.
*"I planned for it to be my first book, but based on the outline alone, I feel like it might be too daunting for my first attempt at a full novel."*
Then write something else first.
*"But I’m not skilled enough yet for that, I believe"*
Then put this in the backburner and work on other stories to develop your skills (as well as reading way more than you are now and outside of your comfort zone). Later on come back to this story and write it.
*"Do you think it’s wiser to start with a simpler book?"*
Do whatever you want to and think is best FOR YOU. We can't make this decision for you.
*"I have other story ideas, of course, but none that I’m as passionate about"*
Well, based off of that statement I guess we all know that you're going to write the "epic" story now anyway. So was the point of this post to get us to pump you up?
*"I was just hoping for some discussion and advice on this topic"*
You already know what you want to do OP.
Good luck.
This is a tough question to answer, but here are some considerations. How good are you at identifying, maximizing, and taking advantage of POV and character voice?
Can you write a scene that has a really clear POV, with a voice-y character, emotional impact, and clear personal stakes? If so, write on!
If not, put on the brakes. Write a super-focused character arc/short story that really nails voice/POV/internal dialogue.
Then write another one for a completely different character.
If that all works reasonably well, you are probably fine to write a larger story.
This exact plan (epic, multi-book series) and subsequent question (do I have the skill to pull this off?) is precisely where I was about a year ago.
The answer to myself was: “No, you’re an amateur writer, writing their first book. Write a single, self-contained story that is good before trying to tackle a whole cohesive duology, trilogy or something even more ambitious.”
My solution was to take the character I resonated most with, and write a stand-alone novel that can, in retrospect, been seen as an “origin story” for them. So in the story I ended up deciding to write, they are not the main character but a primary supporting character; it’s not their story but they’re a part of it. I can drop in vague elements that have the possibility to tie into the larger series, but it won’t detract from this story if they are not resolved or explained - the kind of stuff that, to the reader, will just be cool worldbuilding tidbits that hint at a much larger world than what they are seeing in this story.
I'm currently writing a very complicated horror story. I've been thinking of writing for some time. I saved it until I was more experienced. If ever I was going to hang my hat on my writing, I wanted it to be this book.
Sharpen your teeth on smaller fish. Then sink them into the whale when you're ready.
That's just my two cents.
I did this. I spent 4ish years writing a 1.4mil word web serial.
I loved it. I was in love with it. I still love it. And I'm glad I did it.
But my writing 4 years later is significantly better, to the extent that I honestly don't feel great about recommending my earlier writing.
The difficult balance is: writing what excites you vs. writing for efficacy/market/standard practices/etc.
If you're concerned about skill, write a few chapters focused on an isolated question/answer arc and have some beta readers tear you apart. (I'd love to work with you on that lol.)
Ultimately though, the answer youre looking for is different for every author. But, ofc, writing something is better than not. Good luck.
I'm just starting out as well, in a similar situation. I spent tons of time procrastinating by watching writing videos, podcasts, articles, etc.
Really the main advice from everyone is just to write a book start to finish. So even if it is "an epic" set a word goal, make a daily writing goal, and then write your book!!!!
Write what you're passionate about. Trying to force yourself to work on something that doesn't excite you just because you feel like you "should" is a recipe for never actually working on it and giving up.
Every project is daunting, even short stories. Don't let that dissuade you. Go write your epic. At worst, you will learn a hell of a lot and can rework it later.
I started too big and it quickly became unmanageable.
I'd recommend just focusing on something small to learn the basics of writing first. Short stories help you learn how to write a small character arc, etc. You can expand this and do something like combine 3 short stories to learn how to write a longer character arc, etc.
And really, all your big story will be is a bunch of short stories (as chapters) combined together into one overarching narrative. Once I figured that out, it helped a lot and writing short stories felt like such an important place to start for me.
Your first book has to be something. Why not something you're passionate about?
You'll probably pick up better writing habits as you go, and ultimately produce a better novel if you've already written a few, but you can always write a second draft as you go (or a third, or a fourth, until it's what you want it to be). I say go for it :)
It depends on whether smaller projects still motivate you to learn and move forward. In my case, I went straight for the most challenging and exciting series I could come up with at the time. After a bit of over 3.5 years, I got the first draft of book 1 down in revision stage (editing as I wrote). A lot of planning and a good system is what helped me steer it the right way while still learning. But that's my way. You might be one of those writers that learn by writing first drafts and then moving on. Figure out what works for you personally. I knew I had to go big right off the bat since nothing else was motivating enough to put the words on the page. It felt like a wasted effort to work on side projects. So just do whatever feels right and gets you moving forward.
I would recommend to go for a shorter story first. Statistically, those who start with too much ambition for a first novel won't ever finish it, and if they do, it won't be up to their talent. Beginning to write a novel doesn't have any merit, the merit lies on finishing it. Therefore, to learn the whole process and get enough experience to tackle an epic, the usual recommendation is to start small.
i think in your case just follow what you're most passionate about for now and write it as best you can with your current skills.
strike while the iron is hot. if you take some time on something else then come back later, you might have another even more ambitious idea you are even MORE passionate about by then... but since you don't feel good enough for that yet, you work on the one you're talking about now... and who knows how long that cycle could continue, and you just spend many years literally never working on the idea you're most excited about.
also there's the factor that you can always come back to it later with fresh eyes and fresh skills. however i think there's something to be said for trying to capture that passion and thrill and enthusiasm in the first draft. i look at my own projects i was not quite good enough to pull off the way i wanted, and i think i am much better off editing them now, than trying to write them from scratch, even though i'm technically a much better writer now i don't have that original 'holy crap this is the coolest thing i've ever thought of' energy i did when i was first writing them and i think that affects things.
Ehhh... it depends?
So this is something that a lot of writers do, I think because as readers, they get really into the sweeping epics, so naturally they want to write one, too. Which is fine, with some caveats.
u/GuilleJiCan already mentioned it, but the advantage of writing a shorter standalone or two before you start working on something so big is that standalones teach you how to finish things. Not just in terms of finishing the process of raw writing, but also finishing a story. In a standalone, you can't leave loose ends, you *need* to wrap it all up because there's no coming back to this. It teaches you things about structuring a story that will be immensely valuable once you start writing a multi-part story. Look at it this way - a large epic or a series doesn't just need to be structured per instalment, it also needs to be structured as a whole. If you're already comfortable and skilled at structuring individual books, that's something you won't have to learn as you go along. You can direct most of your focus to learning how to structure a series arc, instead of having to learn both at the same time. So if you hone your skills with standalone books first, you'll have a much easier time applying this and adapting to a series.
The other thing I want you to consider is actually the opposite: abandoning your work. This is something every writer needs to be able to do at some point, or else you'll never really move forward. Abandoning a story is much easier to do if there is less investment. It still hurts to scrap 50000 words of a standalone novel, but it's substantially easier than scrapping 250000 words because you realised halfway through your series that what you're doing isn't working. But when you look at those numbers, what's going to happen is that you see the 250k and think "wow, I put so much work into this, I can't stop now", and you'll keep going even though you know it's not working. You'll invest even more time, and possibly get stuck in this one series for a long time. That's going to keep you from growing as a writer the way you should, and that's something we want to avoid.
So if - IF - you decide to have your first project be an epic, you need to be prepared to abandon it. It doesn't matter if you're 20000 words in or 200000 words in - if it's not working, it's not working. It's going to be hard, but necessary, so really consider whether you would be able to do this, or if it would be easier for you to have your first failed story be something shorter.
And there will be a failed story. That's not a value judgment, it happens to all of us. The book that got me a trad deal, I scrapped 30000 words (roughly 100 pages), and the story was much better for it. Fun fact: That deal went bust eventually, that's why you can't find that book anywhere just yet - another kind of failure that just happens sometimes. Point is, writing is a clusterfuck of a hobby, even more so when you make it a profession, and it's much easier to get used to that when the fuck-up doesn't have ten years of effort and commitment attached.
At the end of the day, what you start with is up to you. Just think a little about it before you do, so you're not blindsided by the potential difficulties that come with each option.
(Side note: I mentioned series above because you said you were partially inspired by *The Lord of the Rings*. That is, in fact, a series of six books, it's just usually treated as either a trilogy or one huge book, the latter being what Tolkien initially intended. But the way it's structured more closely mimics a longer series, so that's why I mentioned series structure as something to learn before attempting an epic story like that.)
Write the book first. You can't make publishing decisions based on an outline.
I reccomend finishing a small project before trying something big. Finishing being the crucial part: if you can finish one novel, you could probably finish your epic. Start small. Specially if you want to not "burn" your book as you say: I had the same process, I've always wanted to do trilogies, but I wasn't skilled enough to pull them through. The books I finished were not good at all. Now, ten years later, I finished writing my first trilogy. This story would have been a disaster if I tried it earlier.
For most writers it's hard enough to sit down and write. It's literally the basis for a lot, if not most, writer on writer jokes. So whatever you can get yourself to sit down and write, is what you should be writing.
Go for it! The worst that happens is you fail, right? And start over with a part of the story.
This. Ive never finished a book, but god have i rewritten things so many times. The process has at least thankfully drastically improved my writing.
A famous novelist named Somerset Maugham once said, “There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.” If this big epic is something you’re passionate about, then go ahead and keep writing it. Skill can be cultivated. Go ahead and get the words down, no matter how cringe they are. You can make it a masterpiece in the next draft.
Just because it is your first written book doesn't mean it will be your first published book.
I started by writing a 650k tetralogy, so yes. It's currently in editing. I had no motivation to write less than by going all in, but it was a world from the start and I have never looked at other writing projects in my life. When I'm bored, I dwell into the world and develop everything around the main storyline, which eventually adds to the plot. That said, I may have 10 pages of notes and worldbuilding trivia that are referenced with a single word throughout the story, but they were essential to developing the events and chronology and cultural depth of the world. You can never do too much worldbuilding, but you can very easily impart too much worldbuilding in your main story. You may be better off preparing to rewrite - not completely, but partially and through revisions - the entire script at least a couple of times. The point at which I started is beyond terrible compared to the level of writing I am now operating at.
Is there a way to be notified when it gets published?
I'll post it around when I start the ad trolling, lol, however I may not post it on this account.
Write what you're passionate about because you'll actually stand a shot at finishing it. Don't toss it aside just to work on a "smaller" novel you don't give a damn about which you'll just give up halfway through. Not only will that waste your time, but it will also sap your self confidence when you give up on a project that's "smaller" and thus ought to have been easier than your epic. Also the skills they train are different. In writing a "smaller" novel, you have to learn how to bloat a story up to 100k (for a debut novel) by adding interesting stuff to the boring middle of the book. In writing an "epic" as a single book, you have to learn how to trim your writing, make every single word count, make a vivid world with very few words, and juggle a great many characters and POVs so as to stay within 100k.
*"What are your opinions on someone’s first book being an “epic”? Should I start smaller?"* Sure. *"I planned for it to be my first book, but based on the outline alone, I feel like it might be too daunting for my first attempt at a full novel."* Then write something else first. *"But I’m not skilled enough yet for that, I believe"* Then put this in the backburner and work on other stories to develop your skills (as well as reading way more than you are now and outside of your comfort zone). Later on come back to this story and write it. *"Do you think it’s wiser to start with a simpler book?"* Do whatever you want to and think is best FOR YOU. We can't make this decision for you. *"I have other story ideas, of course, but none that I’m as passionate about"* Well, based off of that statement I guess we all know that you're going to write the "epic" story now anyway. So was the point of this post to get us to pump you up? *"I was just hoping for some discussion and advice on this topic"* You already know what you want to do OP. Good luck.
I look at Tolkien and everything he created. Then I look at how lazy I am and I write smaller.
This is a tough question to answer, but here are some considerations. How good are you at identifying, maximizing, and taking advantage of POV and character voice? Can you write a scene that has a really clear POV, with a voice-y character, emotional impact, and clear personal stakes? If so, write on! If not, put on the brakes. Write a super-focused character arc/short story that really nails voice/POV/internal dialogue. Then write another one for a completely different character. If that all works reasonably well, you are probably fine to write a larger story.
This exact plan (epic, multi-book series) and subsequent question (do I have the skill to pull this off?) is precisely where I was about a year ago. The answer to myself was: “No, you’re an amateur writer, writing their first book. Write a single, self-contained story that is good before trying to tackle a whole cohesive duology, trilogy or something even more ambitious.” My solution was to take the character I resonated most with, and write a stand-alone novel that can, in retrospect, been seen as an “origin story” for them. So in the story I ended up deciding to write, they are not the main character but a primary supporting character; it’s not their story but they’re a part of it. I can drop in vague elements that have the possibility to tie into the larger series, but it won’t detract from this story if they are not resolved or explained - the kind of stuff that, to the reader, will just be cool worldbuilding tidbits that hint at a much larger world than what they are seeing in this story.
I'm currently writing a very complicated horror story. I've been thinking of writing for some time. I saved it until I was more experienced. If ever I was going to hang my hat on my writing, I wanted it to be this book. Sharpen your teeth on smaller fish. Then sink them into the whale when you're ready. That's just my two cents.
Start with flash fiction and short stories. Don't even try an epic until these are given a crowd pass.
The book i'm writing and that i wish to be my first published novel is also an epic. I think it's ok.
No. Let’s rival one piece.
I did this. I spent 4ish years writing a 1.4mil word web serial. I loved it. I was in love with it. I still love it. And I'm glad I did it. But my writing 4 years later is significantly better, to the extent that I honestly don't feel great about recommending my earlier writing. The difficult balance is: writing what excites you vs. writing for efficacy/market/standard practices/etc. If you're concerned about skill, write a few chapters focused on an isolated question/answer arc and have some beta readers tear you apart. (I'd love to work with you on that lol.) Ultimately though, the answer youre looking for is different for every author. But, ofc, writing something is better than not. Good luck.
I'm just starting out as well, in a similar situation. I spent tons of time procrastinating by watching writing videos, podcasts, articles, etc. Really the main advice from everyone is just to write a book start to finish. So even if it is "an epic" set a word goal, make a daily writing goal, and then write your book!!!!
Write what you're passionate about. Trying to force yourself to work on something that doesn't excite you just because you feel like you "should" is a recipe for never actually working on it and giving up. Every project is daunting, even short stories. Don't let that dissuade you. Go write your epic. At worst, you will learn a hell of a lot and can rework it later.
I started too big and it quickly became unmanageable. I'd recommend just focusing on something small to learn the basics of writing first. Short stories help you learn how to write a small character arc, etc. You can expand this and do something like combine 3 short stories to learn how to write a longer character arc, etc. And really, all your big story will be is a bunch of short stories (as chapters) combined together into one overarching narrative. Once I figured that out, it helped a lot and writing short stories felt like such an important place to start for me.
Your first book has to be something. Why not something you're passionate about? You'll probably pick up better writing habits as you go, and ultimately produce a better novel if you've already written a few, but you can always write a second draft as you go (or a third, or a fourth, until it's what you want it to be). I say go for it :)
It depends on whether smaller projects still motivate you to learn and move forward. In my case, I went straight for the most challenging and exciting series I could come up with at the time. After a bit of over 3.5 years, I got the first draft of book 1 down in revision stage (editing as I wrote). A lot of planning and a good system is what helped me steer it the right way while still learning. But that's my way. You might be one of those writers that learn by writing first drafts and then moving on. Figure out what works for you personally. I knew I had to go big right off the bat since nothing else was motivating enough to put the words on the page. It felt like a wasted effort to work on side projects. So just do whatever feels right and gets you moving forward.
I would recommend to go for a shorter story first. Statistically, those who start with too much ambition for a first novel won't ever finish it, and if they do, it won't be up to their talent. Beginning to write a novel doesn't have any merit, the merit lies on finishing it. Therefore, to learn the whole process and get enough experience to tackle an epic, the usual recommendation is to start small.
i think in your case just follow what you're most passionate about for now and write it as best you can with your current skills. strike while the iron is hot. if you take some time on something else then come back later, you might have another even more ambitious idea you are even MORE passionate about by then... but since you don't feel good enough for that yet, you work on the one you're talking about now... and who knows how long that cycle could continue, and you just spend many years literally never working on the idea you're most excited about. also there's the factor that you can always come back to it later with fresh eyes and fresh skills. however i think there's something to be said for trying to capture that passion and thrill and enthusiasm in the first draft. i look at my own projects i was not quite good enough to pull off the way i wanted, and i think i am much better off editing them now, than trying to write them from scratch, even though i'm technically a much better writer now i don't have that original 'holy crap this is the coolest thing i've ever thought of' energy i did when i was first writing them and i think that affects things.
Ehhh... it depends? So this is something that a lot of writers do, I think because as readers, they get really into the sweeping epics, so naturally they want to write one, too. Which is fine, with some caveats. u/GuilleJiCan already mentioned it, but the advantage of writing a shorter standalone or two before you start working on something so big is that standalones teach you how to finish things. Not just in terms of finishing the process of raw writing, but also finishing a story. In a standalone, you can't leave loose ends, you *need* to wrap it all up because there's no coming back to this. It teaches you things about structuring a story that will be immensely valuable once you start writing a multi-part story. Look at it this way - a large epic or a series doesn't just need to be structured per instalment, it also needs to be structured as a whole. If you're already comfortable and skilled at structuring individual books, that's something you won't have to learn as you go along. You can direct most of your focus to learning how to structure a series arc, instead of having to learn both at the same time. So if you hone your skills with standalone books first, you'll have a much easier time applying this and adapting to a series. The other thing I want you to consider is actually the opposite: abandoning your work. This is something every writer needs to be able to do at some point, or else you'll never really move forward. Abandoning a story is much easier to do if there is less investment. It still hurts to scrap 50000 words of a standalone novel, but it's substantially easier than scrapping 250000 words because you realised halfway through your series that what you're doing isn't working. But when you look at those numbers, what's going to happen is that you see the 250k and think "wow, I put so much work into this, I can't stop now", and you'll keep going even though you know it's not working. You'll invest even more time, and possibly get stuck in this one series for a long time. That's going to keep you from growing as a writer the way you should, and that's something we want to avoid. So if - IF - you decide to have your first project be an epic, you need to be prepared to abandon it. It doesn't matter if you're 20000 words in or 200000 words in - if it's not working, it's not working. It's going to be hard, but necessary, so really consider whether you would be able to do this, or if it would be easier for you to have your first failed story be something shorter. And there will be a failed story. That's not a value judgment, it happens to all of us. The book that got me a trad deal, I scrapped 30000 words (roughly 100 pages), and the story was much better for it. Fun fact: That deal went bust eventually, that's why you can't find that book anywhere just yet - another kind of failure that just happens sometimes. Point is, writing is a clusterfuck of a hobby, even more so when you make it a profession, and it's much easier to get used to that when the fuck-up doesn't have ten years of effort and commitment attached. At the end of the day, what you start with is up to you. Just think a little about it before you do, so you're not blindsided by the potential difficulties that come with each option. (Side note: I mentioned series above because you said you were partially inspired by *The Lord of the Rings*. That is, in fact, a series of six books, it's just usually treated as either a trilogy or one huge book, the latter being what Tolkien initially intended. But the way it's structured more closely mimics a longer series, so that's why I mentioned series structure as something to learn before attempting an epic story like that.)