I ordered the proof for my first novel today from createspace. Somehow, when the fuzzy idea of writing a book first coalesced, the practicality of the maneuvers escaped me. I started to sit down and just write, but then realized I couldn't keep my own characters straight. This led to a detailed genealogical evaluation of the entire fictional town of Leroy, which in turn led to copious note-making and diagrams, personality assessments for my characters, even a town layout depicting whose store was where in relation to the rest of the town. By the time I had all this completed, months had passed! Literally, months. Along the way, as ideas for the plot would come to me, I worked on the book's outline. By the time I was ready to pick up pen and start baring my writer's soul, I had filled up three notebooks with information relating to this town. I know more about these fictional characters than I do my own neighbors. That's okay, though, because I kinda like it that way.
At first the real writing was more of a 'this happens here' and 'this character does this next' sort of thing. As I started to get a feel for it all, the whole process, dialogue developed. Remember, this is the first serious writing project I had undertaken since high school. That was over 15 years ago. My skills were rusty but thankfully hadn't wasted away and atrophied past the point of being revived. By the time I made it to the middle of the book, I was hopping. I quickly learned that if I wrote 10 good pages per day, I was in high cotton. Thirteen good pages? Wow, somebody give that girl a cigar. I also learned that putting that much emotion and intensity forward leaves one feeling quite drained, and that it wasn't uncommon for me to have two good days followed by one or two down days. The more I seem to write, however, the more I seem to be able to produce.
When I finished the first, rough draft, I was ecstatic. I had written a book! No one but no one could take that away from me. Ever. As someone who has had more than her fair share of losses, this concept was calming. I printed the manuscript out, bought some red ink pens, and sat down with a gynormous three ring binder and plowed through the book. It took much longer than I had expected, and so did the revisions when I was ready to tackle them. Next book, I'll have a better idea of what to expect, at least.
After handing the second draft over to my editor, I waited somewhat patiently (for me) for her response. Thankfully, she loved it and was very, very encouraging. At the same time, my husband was reading through the second draft, and he was making marks as he went. I forcefully reminded him that he was not my editor, so this sweet engineer who cannot spell 'coming' decided to not mark all the 'typos' he had found. He only marked sections he had questions about, and after he finished, which was the same time coincidentally as my editor, we sat down and went over his notes and hers. He picked up on a couple of glitches that needed a male perspective, or perhaps just a different one, to be fair, and my editor tackled all my style issues.
Now, I know authors are advised to write, rewrite, rewrite, rewrite, and then think about editing, but I've never done that. I don't start writing until I'm ready to put a finished (or near finished) draft down on paper. Never have. Hopefully that won't come back to bite me. I guess we will see.
In the middle of everything else, we designed the website, business cards, decided on a font and finished the layout for the cover. The cover was the hardest part - it's like naming a baby. You want your child to have the best possible outlook on the world, and it all starts with their name. A book's cover is the same thing. The title was relatively easy - Secrets in the Shadows. The cover was like pulling eye teeth. We did it, though. Moving on, I set up facebook accounts, amazon.com accounts, createspace accounts, purchased ISBNs, registered for a copyright with the Library of Congress, and had a portrait done. Breathing a sigh of relief, I uploaded all the .pdfs to Createspace and this morning, ordered the proof. It should arrive by Tuesday, and we will see what all this hard work has turned out to look like. Hopefully, it will look nice and won't look like something a kindergarten student has done.
All said and done, I now have a much greater respect for authors than I ever did. I knew it would be work going in but I didn't realize how much work. Authors who turn out more than 2-3 books a year? I don't know how you do it. However, you definitely get a big kudos from me and mine. Anyone who thinks writers sit around dreaming and eating bon bons all day just isn't in the real world.
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