January 13, 2024, mid-morning: I finished my first full length novel. Or at least, I finished a first draft. Now I am recruiting beta-readers, or as I am fondly calling them, beta-fish, to read the draft and help me work towards editing it to be readable to an audience. But first, let us back track, and I shall explain how we got here in the first place.
In January of 2023 I reread a story idea for a novel titled Escape to Erimos which I had started three years prior. The plot was awful, the characters sucked, the world was flat …and I was drawn in. So, I scrapped the original designs of most of the characters and redesigned them. Then I completely rewrote the first chapter, and …set the story aside.
My attention was stolen by the idea of a Cinderella rewrite, and I spent the next few months writing on that while only vaguely plotting on Escape to Erimos, or as I called it for ease, project.e. After struggling and struggling to get the Cinderella story to work, I decided to set it aside, and returned to project.e.
In May I wrote the second chapter. At this point in time, I decided I wanted to be able to handwrite this story as much as needed, so I set up a binder with separate sections for world-building, character-building, and actual writing. Later on, at an unrecorded point in time, I drew and inked a map because the novel involved a lot of traveling and I needed a visual for where things were.
At first, the writing was very slow. I wrote sporadically throughout May, June, July, and August. Oddly enough, it was when my studies began again that I really started writing in earnest. The real drive at that point was the idea that I could finish the novel before Christmas and give it to my little sister, who was always in the back of my mind while I was writing. Still, the writing was slow, and I wrote at most only 300 words a day.
December was when the adrenaline really hit. The story was falling into place, and as I reached Christmas break I began writing in between Christmas prep, during my free afternoons, and late into the evenings. Christmas came, and my writing decreased, though I forced myself to still write everyday because if I didn’t, I knew I would stop altogether.
January came and I flew to an entirely different state to stay with some relatives for a while. I had peace, quiet, and all the time in the world. Within the first two weeks of January, I had written 15k and finished draft one of project.e. Maybe a first draft shouldn’t be that big of a deal since the book will have to go through so many edits before it is even worth giving to anyone, but still, this was a big accomplishment for me. So, I wanted to give you a taste of the process.
A few of the frustrations along the way:
- Realizing I yet again forgot about a minor wound a character had.
- Getting to chapter 17 and realizing I dislike a formatting choice I made.
- Late nights spent banging my head into walls over a single scene because I am way too perfectionist.
- Moments of despair when I was tempted to toss the entire novel in the bin.
- Forgetting about an important character …did they leave him on the edge of the road or what??
A few of the highlights along the way:
- Afternoons spent sipping tea and writing with my sister and best friend.
- Late nights when key plot points fell into place, and I spent fifteen minutes dancing through the halls giddy with delight.
- Watch Sonia change and develop into a competent woman while remaining fragile and loving.
- Foreshadowing!
- Introducing a side-character with the name Alexandre Benedictus Darville. He gets two scenes max in the entire novel, but he brings me so much joy!
- Sitting in a library writing an entire love song just to insert a couple lines of it into one scene.
- Long talks late at night with a couple siblings over potential plot points and the nuances in ways characters express themselves.
My next steps, now that the draft is written:
- Format story to be easier to read.
- Print and give to eldest sister so she can be first official beta-reader.
- When she is done, then the editing begins. Edit punctuation, sentences that don’t make sense, and entire scenes or even chapters.
- Bonus: start plotting another book! This book is uncorrelated to the project.e; they don’t even take place in the same world, but it is a next step I am taking because I finished project.e. so I thought I’d include it.
Thank you for coming along on this emotional roller-coaster of a journey with me. Now, as is tradition, I must pose you with a challenge: can you do this too? Why don’t you give a shot …just start writing, or plotting, or mapping, or whatever your best first step is, and see what happens. Maybe, in a year, you’ll be the one with a full draft of a novel.
Good luck and best wishes!