You can always tell when I finish a first draft. I blog.
That's because I have to force myself to take a break. I need to remove myself
from the story for a long enough periods of time, that when I come back to do my
first revision, I can see what I've written from a new perspective. Well,
that's the idea anyway. The problem is, I don't want to leave the story. I've
lived in my characters' world for so long, I'm happy there. Way happier than I
am in my own world right now, but that's another story, and not one for this
blog. Maybe it's another book?
One of the things a first draft signals, apart from the
opportunity to post here, is the upcoming announcement of another imminent
release. Yes, that's right. The Escape Route Book 5 is getting ready to be
leaked to the waiting fans. As they say (whoever
they are) Watch This Space.
You may have heard, or read, about the life of a writer
being very lonely. It is. Every day, you, the writer (in my case me) sit
at your computer for hours, alone, staring at a blank screen. This was the process for my first novel, Caitlin's Escape Route, the first in the Escape Route series. And it has been the same for each of the other books in the series.
Sometimes you
scrape through your memories for small incidents that can be stretched and
teased into a story. Memories of your own, or someone else's experiences,
snippets of conversations overheard in doctor's waiting rooms, or on the bus.
And you type. Eventually you might have sixty or eighty thousand words filling
what was the empty screen. But, you are convinced it is all total
crap. Still you persevere. Why? I have no idea. I just know I can't not
do it. And, yes, before you ask, every incident related in my books has happened, either to me or to someone I know.
From here, I'm relating the process for self published authors. A
growing breed, of which I am one. Also known as Indie Authors.
Next comes revision. In my case I can expect to revise my
work at least ten times, sometimes more. In between revisions I listen to the
story from start to finish. It's quite amazing the grammar and typing mistakes
you can catch listening rather than reading. When you read something, you tend
to see what is supposed to be there, insead of what is actually on the page. As
you can imagine, after reading or listening to the same story, one you
made up and wrote, about twenty times, it's not only crap, it's boring.
The next step is your critique partner, if you are lucky
enough to have one. A good critique partner will tell you all that's good about
your story, as well as all that needs attention, with suggestions as to how to
improve it. Your task is to read this critique as objectively as you possibly
can, then, after you have wallowed in the praise, decide how much, if any of
the criticism you are going to accept and act upon. A difficult decision. Next
is beta readers. Again, if you are lucky enough to have such rare creatures.
You feel guilty asking them to read your crappy story, but you send the
manuscript to them anyway. Then you wait, hoping they will read it, praying
they will send you their honest opinion, crossing your fingers that opinion is
not just good but also useful.
Eventually some of the beta readers respond. Some writers
have the balls to remind those that don't respond. I don't, well, sometimes I do, but I feel bad doing it. I'm just thankful
for what I get. I go through the feedback immediately, then put it aside while
the wounds to my soul, and my ego, heal. Then I read it all again and decide
what to act on and what is just the opinion of one person. Of course, if all of
the beta readers have the same criticisms, then you absolutely have to pay
attention.
Finally, at this point, many writers will hire a
professional editor to comb through the manuscript, and presumably, make
suggestions to improve it. I don't. I cannot justify the expense. I do my own
editing. The way I look at it is, if my stories are good enough, and my limited
marketing causes people to notice my books, I might one day make enough money
to pay for professional editors down the road. Not now.
Did I say finally? There is one more step, I actually
do this after the first draft, but many writers leave it to the end. Again,
many writers pay a professional to create a cover for their book. I create my
own. In part because, again, I can't justify paying someone. But also because I
actually enjoy doing it.
KDP, Kindle Direct Publishing, is where I publish
my books. Having once worked for Amazon, I suppose I have a familiarity with
it, but also I'm old, I don't have the energy required for the other self
publishing avenues, plus Kindle Unlimited is a steady income, once your books
come to the attention of readers. So, you upload your manuscript to KDP, go
through the tedious steps getting it ready for publication, finally you push
the button and wait for KDP to tell you it's acceptable and live. Then a
silence so loud it's almost deafening.
With a first book, you tell all your family and friends,
hoping they will buy it, love it and write glowing reviews. Some do,
surprisingly, mostly they just add to the silence. Then you scour YouTube for
free instruction on how to market your book. Facebook ads and Amazon ads
follow, at no small expense, but if you're lucky, as I was, your book starts to
sell. Now you wait for the reviews. Reviews sell books, obviously good
reviews are better, but no reviews at all are a disaster. So you get extremely
excited if one or two dribble in.
Then, you start all over again.
