I was going to show you guys my apartment today, but it’s too messy and I can’t (be bothered to) get it to a level of presentable that I’d feel comfortable sharing with you.

I took the photos and everything. Then I looked at them, scrunched up my nose, and thought naahhh.

So instead I’m going to tell you about my book.

Yes, I’m writing a book! A full on novel and everything. I’ve been knee deep in it this week and it’s been playing on my mind, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to write about it.

Writing a novel is something I have wanted to for a long old time. Ever since I can remember, really. I’ve started hundreds of books in the past, eagerly powering on through chapter one, chapter two, chapter… Yeah, I could never seem to build up the momentum to get past chapter three.

Then I’d convince myself it was a terrible idea and never look at it again. Rinse and repeat for god-knows-how-many years.

Here’s one of the photos I took yesterday in my “apartment shoot” – except, it’s not of my apartment. 

This time I’ve actually finished the first draft. It comes in at somewhere around 60,000 words and it’s… well, it’s okay. I’m just pleased I’ve finished the damn thing.

But finishing the first draft was actually the easy part. Now I’ve moved onto the first round of edits I am pretty much in way over my head. The plot changed as I wrote more and more of the draft, so I basically have to go back and change the whole story. Fun times.

What’s the book about?

I still haven’t come up with a synopsis. I wrote one when I was halfway through the first draft but I need to come up with a new one that reflects the changes.

But in lieu of a synopsis, here’s what the book is about:

Norman is a grumpy old man who lives alone in a caravan by the sea. After a nasty fishing incident he is rescued and taken aboard a trading ship heading to god-knows-where. All Norman wants to do is go home. It’s not that easy, though, thanks to a series of events that unfold, leading the little old man on a perilous journey (for someone his age) that involves a smugglers’ colony, an island where things aren’t quite what they seem, and an elephant pilgrimage.

I’ve also threaded Norman’s turbulent childhood and young adult life into the pages, which leads up to the moment he decided to live alone in a caravan by the sea.

The story has evolved drastically since the initial planning stages, but I’m pleased with where it’s at. I’ll be making a few more big tweaks in this round of edits… and then probably some more in the next round.

I might not know when to stop.

I actually wrote the first draft in a matter of weeks – I think it was about 8 weeks in total (this was, in part, due to me not having internet for the first 6 weeks I was in Spain… it’s amazing how productive you can be when there’s no Facebook), and I learnt a helluva lot whilst writing it.

Things I learnt when writing the first draft of my novel

• The beginning and the end aren’t important

I agonised over the first word, sentence, and page of the first draft and then, when I came back to edit, I literally deleted it all in a matter of seconds. It was crap.

I’m almost certainly going to change the end, too, when I get to it in this round of edits.

If you’re stuck because you don’t know how to start or finish the story, just plough on with the middle and come back to it.

Seriously, this is the best advice I can give you.

• A novel doesn’t take that long to write

You hear about all these writers that have spent tens of years labouring over their life’s masterpiece. Now, I’m all for being a perfectionist, but ten years – really?!

At first I thought it would take me a year or so to finish the first draft (based on my forays into novel writing in the past), but I whacked it out in 8 weeks. Yes, the editing is the hard bit, but at least I’ve got something to edit now, right?!

• The story has a mind of its own

I had the story all planned out before I started. In my head, I mean, not on paper (I’m not that organised). I knew the scenes that would take place and the characters and the plot. And then it all changed as soon as I started writing.

I noticed plot holes that I needed to cover up, and some scenes were just dull, dull, dull. I began to veer off in another direction completely towards the end of the first draft, and I let myself just go with it. It was hard, but I think I have a much more solid story now.

• You get really attached to the characters

I love Norman. I literally love him. And I hope everyone else does, too.

I planned to make him grumpy and miserable, and it turns out that I love him even more because of that. Me and Norman are like this – *crosses fingers*. I’ve heard it’s a bad thing to get too attached to your characters, but I’m in way too deep now.

• You will hate it a thousand times over

I’ve lost count of the amount of times I slammed my laptop shut and poured myself a glass of wine because I wasn’t happy with what I’d written.

I’d read other books, hear about other people’s ideas, and I’d slowly start to resent my plotline and question my ability to form even simple sentences.

This is totally normal.

Don’t give up on that first wave of hate… Ride it out until the next one… And then ride it out again until you have something that you can kind of bring yourself to like.

• Getting lost in a story – your own story – is the best thing

There were times when I’d be hammering away on the keyboard and I’d look up and 2 or 3 hours had passed. I’d have written 5,000 words and I’d have a great idea for the next scene.

These are the moments that count, the moments that matter. There is no better feeling that being completely absorbed in your writing and your story – this is when the best work happens.

Sure, there were days where I forced myself to write even when I didn’t feel like it, but they didn’t feel anywhere near as good as the days when I was on a role and completely enthralled with the story.

• I can actually do it

I had so many doubts before I started writing this book. I was sceptical that I’d even get halfway through, let alone finish the whole thing.

But I did it! I wrote an entire book! And no one is more shocked than me.

• You have to want to tell the story

I think the reason the plot of this story has changed so much is because I wasn’t really interested in my original idea. I didn’t feel like I needed to write it and it kind of just went off on a really boring tangent that no one in their right mind would ever read.

When I changed the plotline things changed. It got exciting and I got excited to write it. My fingers couldn’t work fast enough… I just HAD to get Norman’s story down on paper. So I did.

Norman? Is that you? Source and source

And here I am now with the first draft of a full-length novel under my belt. The work doesn’t stop here, though. Like I said, editing it is harder than actually writing it (I’m one of those people who struggles to delete something once they’ve written it) and I still have a long way to go.

I plan on having this first round of edits finished by Easter, and then the next round of edits finished by June. I’m hoping by then it will be ready to go out to Beta readers and then… Who knows?

I don’t know much about the book industry, but I do know that it’s going through some drastic changes at the moment. I’ve been researching a lot into traditional and self-publishing routes and know that I’d much rather go with the former. But we’ll see. I’m a long way off and I still have a whole load of things to learn!

Now tell me, have you written a book? Would you like to?