This past weekend I received a simple but crucial bit of insight that completely shifted my perspective on writing—specifically about writing my first novel.

Before getting into it, a little transparency: I’m sick this week and functioning at seventy-five percent brain power, so forgive me if this blog post is shorter and makes little to no sense.

As some of you may know, one of my goals for 2026 is to finish writing my supernatural, mystery series and release it in September on my Substack. In January, I had about 9,000 words written. Currently, I’m sitting at around 26,000 words. I’m moving at a snail’s pace, but I’m getting there.

The Novel Insight that Caused A Paradigm Shift

While writing a series isn’t exactly the same as writing a novel, the Venn diagram is almost a perfect circle. Full disclosure, I’ve never written either before. Writing a novel, to be honest, has always felt like an impossible task. That was until I chatted with a friend of mine who’s a novelist. This friend is an incredible person who attends a writing group I started a few years ago. She has written and published seven books, and is about to publish another.

As we were finishing up our writing session, she asked me how my story was going. I told her I was chipping away at it, writing 2,000 words a week.

“It feels like I’m actually eating an elephant.”

“Consistency is the most important thing when writing your first novel,” she said. She then proceeded to gift me with some insight that caused a paradigm shift.

Standing there in the middle of a coffee shop, holding up the staff from closing a few minutes early, she looked at me and said, “the first book is always the hardest. After that, writing another becomes easier. I think that’s because we have to prove to ourselves that we can in fact do it.” This wonderful woman then looked over to another writing buddy of ours who also published two of his own books. “Don’t you think?”

“Oh, yes,” he said. “Almost every other writer I’ve met has told me the same.”

Like a side hug from a dear friend, this insight gave me a warm feeling of reassurance that this seemingly impossible feat was something I could do, if I wanted.

In that moment, it felt like all the struggle of writing your first novel—the frustration, the joy, the imposter syndrome, the empowerment—was a right of passage. That seems dramatic, and it most certainly is. (I’m blaming the head cold.) But in all sincerity, it makes sense. Once you know something is possible, that self doubt and all the inhibiting effects that come with it, fade away. It becomes easier. You just have to cross that first finish line.

September, I’m coming for ya.