two books, and a peace

Having written one novel, it currently is in its fourth draft, and having begun writing a second novel before totally finishing the first one is a funny writing process. I finished book one’s third draft (I’ll call them book one and two from now on, despite them being independent from one another, just for simplicity sake.) on a Friday and started book two’s first draft on a the very next Monday. That whole sequence of events is a story all onto its own. 

I begun work on editing book one again this week, draft four here I come. And it’s caused a flurry of thoughts. Not the least of which being that my wiring process is a rather odd one. That’s news to no-one but still. 

Early on in beginning book two I thought, “well crap, this one is already way better written then the one thats finished.” It was both self deprecating and funny. Of course each project becomes more refined than the one before it, I just wasn’t expecting it to be that evident. 

However now that I’ve begun draft 4 of book one, I’m so sorry this is a little hard to follow without the books being titled, I can yet again see how much I’ve improved, but this time it’s all smiles from me. 

Yes narratively speaking these books have absolutely nothing to do with each other, but they also would not exist without the other. Let me explain: I starting wiring book two first. I had the initial idea back when I was still a high school student and didn’t have a lot of self discipline. So on occasion I’d pull it out to tinker away with, but solely relying on whims to make any progress. I didn’t truly know what I was doing, and strictly speaking I still don’t really, but I was no less passionate about it. Somewhere alone the way in 2022 I began making true headway in planning the story. Having gained a foundation of self discipline and motivation through persisting with the blog, I was making like a rocket. I finished what I still call my zero draft and promptly hit a brick wall the size of the Grand Canyon. 

I was faced with yet another failed attempt to write the opening chapter. It fell flat on its face, and honestly it might have been the worst one of them all. I got through all of 1,000 words before I was well and truly stuck. I tried rewriting it in first person and that too had all the beauty of a dust bunny. I was at my wits end. Being unwilling to truly give up my dream and desire to tell stories and write books, I tried a new tactic. I shelved the book for the first time and well and truly declared it off limits to be worked on till I figured out what in world the problem was. 

Started doing some more research and learning about writing novels specifically. I quickly became twitchy and in need of something to work on. I had being working on the zero draft none stop for months at that point and still had far too much pent up creative energy. So I made a plan, I’d pull out a piece from the compost pile of inspiration and start writing till I hit wall. Then I’d pull apart the writing, dissect it and rip it to pieces to figure out where I was going wrong. The thought being that if it was a story I was less invested, had less blood in, I would be able to look at it objectively for the sake of my writing process. 

Well needless to say it backfired on me in the most productive but frustrating way. I didn’t end up hitting that wall I was expecting and instead had a full blown novel planned out on my hands by the end of the first week. To this day I don’t know what that problem was. Maybe it was just me taking things too seriously and needing learn to loosen up. Maybe I just needed a break from working on the same thing I had been since I was 17. Who knows. 

From there you can kinda see what happened. I fished writing book one, which was just suppose to be an exercise and tool. Edited it through fully twice and then began work on the original book I had been so passionate about. 

So book one is 1 because I fished its first draft first. Book two is 2 because I started it’s successful draft one after book one. It is simply complicated. 

They have nothing whatsoever in-common in terms of story and plot, but one would not be able to exist without the other. Being back in book one brings to light how far my skill has progressed, and how much better I could still become in the years to come. It’s downright exciting. 

At the beginning of writing book twos first draft I thought book one might have to be forgotten or maybe released quietly without great announcement. I had become less proud of it. It was awfully sad really. But now that I’m back to editing it I can see the gold, the fantastic foundation I’ve painstakingly set up and now get to tweak into better refinement.  

At this point I don’t entirely remember what I set out to say when I begin writing this post, but here’s what I’ll end with: Don’t besmirch the process, no matter how unconditional the path may seem. You may just happen upon greater beauty than you could have ever hoped to find.