Can TikTok Help Me Write My Novel?

When I got the opportunity to write my first novel last year, I was completely lost. Here are five tips I found on TikTok that actually helped my process.

I moved back to Kenya in 2020. My life working a communications job in D.C. felt like it had reached a dead end. I was in desperate need of a break to help me figure out my next chapter. At first, it was exciting. My boyfriend lived in Nairobi and he quickly integrated me into his social life. But finding meaningful friendships of my own and adjusting to the idiosyncrasies of Kenyan life proved difficult. Most people here are in friend groups that started in their mothers’ wombs, and contrary to the U.S., making new friends is not encouraged or a cultural norm. Adding insult to injury is social habits in Kenya. If binge drinking every weekend isn’t your jam, like me, you’re often left on the outskirts. I remained on those outskirts for weeks. Then months. Then years. In 2022, two years into my relocation, I was lonelier than ever. 

I decided to write about my move and my loneliness. After some research and a lot of rejected pitches, I got in touch with an editor at Vogue, who commissioned me to interview former friends I’d lost touch with after my move about our fractured relationships. 

The piece got buzz. People started to pay attention to my work. It was shortly after that a book editor emailed me out of the blue to ask if I’d be interested in writing a novel about the themes of my essay: the emotional complexities of platonic relationships, the nuances of social and family networks across the African diaspora, and the diversity of Black identities. I was stunned. I was only a few years into my journalism career. Never in a million years did I think the opportunity to write a book would just fall into my lap. 

I also never thought I would write a novel: I had never written or published fiction before. But I knew I was ready for something bigger. Writing a protagonist like myself—a Kenyan American woman growing up a third culture kid, mostly in the U.S—was a thrilling challenge. What does a coming-of-age novel about a character like that look like?

Writing a novel is an enormous effort, even when you’re not as green to fiction as I am. Indeed, seven months in, I was struggling with… everything. Where do I start? What’s been done before? What hasn’t? What is the story I need to tell? In my moment of need, I turned—where else—to TikTok, and found surprisingly valuable advice from the fiction community there. Here’s what I learned:

Scramble the steps 

@catmdevlin Replying to @SarinBooi how I plot a book 🙂 #booktok #writing #writer #writewithme #writertok #authorsoftiktok #writingtips #planningabook #plottinganovel #howtowriteabook #howtowriteaplot ♬ Wes Anderson-esque Cute Acoustic – Kenji Ueda

https://www.tiktok.com/@catmdevlin/video/7269657797782932768

When I started writing, I knew I needed a structure. The thought of creating a novel-length story is dizzying, and most of the Google-able online templates I found were clunky and rigid: following them seemed just as overwhelming as writing the book planless. 

Then, I came across author and content creator Caitlin Devlin’s nine-step approach to plotting a book on TikTok. The way in which she took a straightforward story and grew it step-by-step into a complex novel spoke to me. What I liked most about her process is its fluidity. She’s an advocate of constantly going back to previous steps. Step three—write down everything you want to happen in your book—and step seven—just write—helped me be fearless and free when plotting my book. But the real hack has been to keep going back to these two steps when I get lost. For most, writing a novel isn’t linear and your process doesn’t need to be either.

If you can’t find a character, try a different path 

@writer.lindzzz Hoping this can help some of you the way it helped me! #writer #writersoftiktok #writertok #amwriting #aspiringauthor #authortok #creatingcharacters #writingtips #writingprompts #ttrpgcharacter #dndcharacter ♬ Celtic music with harp and flute(826353) – Iwanoji

https://www.tiktok.com/@writer.lindzzz/video/7338925188362489094

Even though I was writing a character close to myself: a young Kenyan American woman who moves back to the U.S. after years abroad following the loss of her first love and father’s abandonment, I was finding getting inside my protagonist’s head difficult. How do you conceive a realistic human psyche, from scratch? 

Prompts I found on TikTok like writer.lindzzz’s “first memory,” prompt, which asks writers to develop their characters’ first memories encouraged me to delve into my characters’ pasts and beyond that, how relate to those pasts, which has become a key theme of my novel. 

Beyond Google Docs

https://www.tiktok.com/@amrsalehduat/photo/7333133429749320992

I write in Google Docs, but, embarking on a larger scale project, I was curious about what other tools were out there. Plottr and Aeon Timeline are popular amongst #Booktok novelists. Plottr is an app that helps you plan and rearrange scenes to create a cohesive story. Aeon Timeline is tailored to fantasy writers, designed for those building complex, multi-layered stories. Both apps offer users a chance to plot their story in a visual way, which can illuminate the gaps.  

Put the pen down

https://www.tiktok.com/@rufarofaithh/photo/7332837748409109792

Six months in, I hit a wall. I was burnt out and overwhelmed. My story was missing something—purpose, intention. Simultaneously, it felt like I was trying to cover too much ground. I decided I needed to take a break to find a way forward. 

I wanted to keep reflecting on my book, even while I took a rest. From a TikTok round-up of writing podcasts, I discovered “Amie Kaufman On Writing,” hosted by the New York Times bestselling science fiction and fantasy author. Her encouragement and her exercises helped me get back on the horse after burning out. One of my favorite Kaufman-approved tips asks writers to draw a map of their novel’s world. Even if you’re not writing fantasy, it’s helpful to reflect on your protagonists’ physical surroundings and how they experience them.

I’m not where I thought I’d be at this point. But the writing community on TikTok has helped me realize that a project of this magnitude requires time and grace. Writing is solitary and it’s easy to feel like you’re alone, doing some kind of magic trick. But you’re not alone and writing isn’t magic (or at least all magic). It’s also a craft, and someone has hit every road bump and mental block that you’re experiencing.