It's Been a Long Slog

Now that I'm getting closer to the point where this book is actually going to be as finished as I can make it, I'm looking back at the process that got me here.

I started my book in the summer of 2017. I remember the moment I got the idea. I was talking to some children about a young adult book I'd been working on, but didn't feel as if it was going anywhere.

As we chatted, the idea for This Book slowly formed in my head. It started with the image of two children flying a spaceship to the Moon. Why were they in a spaceship? The story actually started as a build up to the children somehow getting aboard a spaceship, knowing how to fly it and then zooming off into space.

But I had to think about where they lived, what they'd be doing. The very first draft of The Book back in 2017 actually looks nothing like the finished one, except that the two main characters have remained constant.

I thought about adding in a little alien friend and about changing the settings. The main characters primary carers have lived, divorced, been absent and died all in different drafts.

Like many writers, I also have a demanding Day Job, so writing has been done in dribs and drabs. It's not until I made a writing schedule that I really made progress on this book. I've never tried it before because how can you schedule creativity? But actually, it made me more focused. Istead of writing an entire book in an evening, squished between the kids bedtime and when I passed out exhausted, I only had to write two scenes, or a chapter. It made everything so much more manageable. It also meant what I was working on that day was better quality because I wasn't trying to rush through it. For me, the difference is really noticeable.

I did the same for my editing schedule. I made a pretty editing schedule in my bullet journal whereas with my writing schedule, I just added it to my normal weekly tasks so I don't have a pretty page to show you.

As you can see, on the first day I bunched together six chapters which really wasn't very realistic. It was a weekend (I think?) so I did manage to finish it off but I wasn't able to do much else that day.

I made a much more manageable editing schedule for the following days. And, as you can see, I made notes to myself on the schedule too, where I've merged scenes/chapters and split scenes or chapters.

I also tried to balance out where the midpoint was, by moving chapters or scenes to later parts of the book. There are two pieces that would fit after the midpoint, so they were moved to help things balance a bit better.

Now I'm just on the final edit. I'm checking it all makes sense, the words are all where they should be, the plot holes are filled in and everything works as it should do. Then, The Book I started in 2017 might actually be finished, properly finished, for the first time.

I've learnt a lot about writing in the mean time. I still have those first drafts in the folder for this book. I can't face looking at them. I've read a lot of books about writing. I've read books and blogs and vlogs and posts about editing. Hopefully it's all made a difference.