When I was 12 years old the one thing I knew I wanted to
do more than anything else was write a book.
When I was 19 I started working full time writing
advertising for 630 CHED and I thought this would be a fun way to pass time until
I published my first book in a few years.
At age 50 I woke up and said, “What the hell happened to
my book?”
Sure, I had ‘started’ several books over the years but
for one reason or another I gave up on them all. Lost interest, wrote myself
into a corner, got lazy… the excuses piled up.
The solution
On that fateful morning of my 50th birthday I
realized that I was letting life pass me by. It scared the hell out of me and I
swore I would write my book.
The first thing I had to do was identify everything that
had been holding me back.
The discipline
Although a lifetime of advertising gave me the ability to
be ‘creative on demand’, I still only wrote when I ‘felt like it’. My commitment to myself was to devote a
minimum of one hour a day without fail
until the book was completed.
The story
I loved the writing process – it’s like painting a room
of your house. Rolling the paint on is fun; it’s all the painstaking prep work
that is not. I committed to mapping out
my entire story so I knew what would happen in each chapter before I allowed
myself to write a single word. Working an hour a day this process took me
almost nine months. Best investment of time I ever made on anything.
The characters
Every time I introduced a key character into the story, I
created a detailed four page character profile for that character so he or she
was vividly imprinted in my mind. I also had a better understanding of the
character’s motivation utilizing backgrounds that were never revealed in the
story, but critical to the continuity of the character’s actions.
The writing
The writing was glorious. Finally I was crafting a story
with confidence. I wasn’t seeing a novel as a huge, daunting obstacle that had
to be scaled all at once. I saw a series of small, manageable steps (chapters)
that could easily be coaxed into existence. Never missing a day, no matter
what, I worked for two years to complete the novel.
And if it sounds like I’ve taken the spontaneity out of
the process, I was happy to find that wasn’t the case. Knowing where the story
was going allowed me all kinds of freedom to play with the characters and make
the story more detailed with every new element supporting the final outcome.
Goal setting
My biggest mistake. My goal had been to ‘finally write my
novel’. The minute I was finished I breathed a sigh of relief and put it aside
‘for a few weeks’ before I picked it up again to begin editing.
A few weeks turned into six months. When I finally forced
myself to pick it up again, I found out editing is even more painstaking than
planning and the work went very slowly. Plus, I was not nearly ruthless enough
with myself. At some point, I put it aside and forgot about it. My goal should
have been “to write, edit and publish my book”.
Think big picture.
Another year went by before I finally picked it up again.
I had ‘allowed’ real life to be an excuse for not following my passion. I made
another commitment to myself: a minimum of an hour a day editing the book and
researching the intricacies of self-publishing.
Editing
I started with the big picture, reviewing my notes and
original story structure. My original investment of 9 months planning had
produced a solid outline which required only minor tweaking.
Then, chapter by chapter, paragraph by paragraph, word by
word, I went over my book, revising, correcting, cutting.
I shared the manuscript with a dozen friends who each
came back with critical corrections, omissions and changes. My request to them
was always the same – Don’t tell me if you ‘like’ it, just tell me which parts
aren’t clear or don’t make sense. If you put people in an awkward position, the
feedback you get will be of no help. Get them to focus on grammar and
structure. Ultimately, if you can afford it, hire a professional editor. No
matter how much you ‘self edit’, your book will end up going public with
mistakes. (Deep sigh) Trust me on this.
Engage other
writers
As I was writing my book, a friend of mine was writing
his first novel as well. He beat me to the punch with self-publishing and, once
I overcame the urge to break into his house and smother him in his sleep, he proved
to be a valuable resource. Most writers I’ve met or talked to via social media
love to talk about their experiences with writing. Engage them. Ask lots of questions.
Take notes. Learn. Share.
Daryl
Last year I uploaded my novel "The Ghosts of Sundown" on Amazon.
