Writing A Book

For those of you who missed it, I am currently in the slow process of writing a book. It’s not anything like what I write here on the blog, its much more fantastical. I have always loved stories, even from a young age, and I’ve been devouring books since I was 12. So when I really think about it it’s not all that surprising that I would try my hand at writing my own story. 

Since I am still a ways away from publishing I won’t really be sharing any plot points or even a synopsis of the story yet. Simply because it could still change a great deal between here and there. But I would love to tell you about my process. 

I had the initial idea for this story back when I was probably 16 years old and it’s come a long way since then. I wrote about 4 failed first attempts at a first draft over the years. I think it was two years ago when I sat down and started writing an outline full of world-building points and some small character ideas. And it was last year when I got to work on really truly working on my characters. Let me back up and explain a little more.

I had so many failed first drafts because I wasn’t ready. The first few tries I was missing a direction for the story and then the last few I was lacking in a real understanding of my characters. So fall of 2021 I opened up a new document and started asking questions about my characters, were they a dog person or a cat person, were they optimistic or pessimistic, what’s their favourite colour, just general get to know you questions. I’ll let you in on a little detail, the book will be written through the points of view of my two main characters. So I had two people I needed to get to know really well in order to tell the story I wanted to tell. 

Once I knew enough about my two main characters I thought I was ready to go, then I got stumped. Well and truly stumped, I was back not really know what was gonna happen. I knew where we started and I knew how it was going to end, I just didn’t know how to get from point A to point B. 

So I started writing a new outline, this time for the plot points in order not just world-building and random details. It has now evolved into what I call draft Zero. Draft 0 is a bit of a hybrid weird thing, where its way too detailed to be an outline and way too under written to be a real first draft, so its draft zero. And I’ve been working on draft zero for over a year now. I would say I’m about 2/3 of the way through but its hard to tell at this point. I know I’m defiantly past halfway. 

Fun fact about me I am impatient, stubborn, and have short term memory loss, which all combined makes for some confusions note taking and planning. By the time I finish writing this first book it won’t even feel like I was the one who wrote it. But it makes for some fun surprises where I’ve lined things up correctly and didn’t know I was doing it. 

In all the advice I’ve heard, read, and seen nobody really talks about writing and planning the way I am doing. But with the memory loss and just overall unique way of thinking I have, I have to do things differently. To explain a little more about what draft zero looks like, it is a short outline for each chapter/ each point of view change. Which for the way my brain works it makes perfect sense to do things this way. 

This book, this story, has become something like my baby. I am very protective of it and I want desperately to do it justice. Because of my artist background I can sometimes stray into perfectionism but this time I think its excellence driven. So I’m taking it slow and I’ll save my feeling about taking the process slow for another blog post. But I’m writing a book and would be so happy for you to tag along with my process and thanks for reading. 

So you again next week for a new post discussing the highs and lows of the creative process!