Five years ago, I wrote a book. The inspiration came to me after reading a series of books in my free time – Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty, and Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll. For several months I had quite a bit of free time available to me since I was in my third year of being a stay-at-home mom to a son who still took naps during the day. I also didn’t have much of a social life at the time and JT’s dad was away at a military school out of state for several months in a row.
Let me go back to that first statement though – I wrote a book. I’m often so quick to gloss over my accomplishments with little attention or respect expected, however, this is one of my proudest creations and I certainly don’t want to gloss right over it. After binge reading the three books above, I came up with the crazy thought that every author allows themself to believe – I can do this. So I set out to do just that – write a book.
How did I write a book?
It all started with an idea. I went through a traumatic experience several years ago and decided to finally let some of my obsessive thoughts about seeking revenge finally play out. Though I wanted to do all of the things I’d come up with in my head myself to the person who’d hurt me, I ended up channeling that energy into sitting down at my computer day after day and writing a piece of fiction that also shared my story.
Before even writing a single word of my book, there was plenty of research I wanted to complete in order to feel like I knew what I was doing. For instance, I wasn’t sure what the average length of a novel was. The internet let me know that the average novel length was about 90,000 words. It seemed like a rather overwhelming number at first but as I ran the numbers through my head, I calculated that if I wrote 1,000 words a day for 90 days, I’d end up with a novel. 1,000 words a day seemed rather aggressive, but I had a solid hour or two to myself everyday when JT napped so I reprioritized what mattered in my life at that time and decided to go all in on writing a book and therefor pulled away from anything else that required my undivided attention for those three months.
In order to write my novel in 90 days, I woke up early, typically around 5am to get a cup of hot coffee and sit down at my laptop to start letting the words flow. I typed for an hour or two until JT woke up and then moved my attention to him until his naptime when I could devote more time to writing my novel if I hadn’t already hit my word count for the day that morning. Our waking hours looked pretty normal – zoo visits, walks around the neighborhood, playing inside or at the park, cooking and cleaning… He had an early bedtime of 7pm, so I usually spent some of that time writing as well, before rewarding myself with a glass of bubbly and some good trash television to end the day.
Can you write a novel in Word?
I don’t recommend writing a novel using only a word processing program because they are limited with what features a novelist would find helpful as they create their work. It turns out that books don’t just write themself from clean cut beginning to end. No, it’s more of a scattering of thoughts pulled together cohesively once you’ve finished coming up with original ideas to drive your story. I often pulled out my camera to record myself on video or jotted down notes in an app or text to myself in order to catch the scattered thoughts before they left me.
One of the necessary tools for writing a novel is manuscript software. I purchased Scrivener since it was the most affordable option suggested to me and have used it for all of my novel and screenplay writing to date. I’m able to easily organize my thoughts and simply drag and drop my scenes to place them where they’re necessary to tell a story. When I come up with an idea for a scene, I jot it down in the notes and then elaborate on it within Scrivener. I’m able to organize characters, scenes, and places and keep all of those important details together in one location.
What do you do after the book is written?
Once you’ve realized your story is done being told, let it sit there for a while before reading it in whole yourself, taking notes and editing. You really want the story to just sit there and exist for a little while and allow yourself to forget bits and pieces of it as you do so. Believe me – that happens! I let my manuscript sit for about three months before I went back to read it. I was able to approach my writing with a fresh set of eyes and edit much easier that way.
Sometimes it’s difficult for writers to edit our own work so it’s also important to share your work with trusted friends who are likely to read it and provide you with valuable feedback. I’ve given my book to about a dozen loved ones and I’ve had two of them read it in entirety and provide me with feedback. Lacking friends as readers, hire a freelance editor to do developmental edits on your book to ensure the story is told well and the structure is intact. I didn’t think that my manuscript was ready for publication or seeking literary agent representation just yet so that’s the route I went. I’m also hopeful that the freelance editor I hired may be connected with agents and publishers in order to help me get to publication in the near future as well.
What happens after the manuscript edits are final?
I’m at the point where I’m ready to find this out as well! I hired my freelance editor through reedsy, an online marketplace of freelancers ready to read and edit manuscripts. I was able to sort through them based on the genre of my manuscript and take a look at their previous work to determine who was the best fit for me. I then asked for a quote on the scope of my project and was provided with several bids for the work I was looking to hire. I spent a few days deciding who I’d like to work with and then accepted her proposal.
The next step in seeking publication for your novel is sending query letters to literary agents. Plenty of research also needs to go into selecting the right agents for your piece of work. The best way to find a dream literary agent for your book is to look in the back of your favorite authors’ books to see who they are thanking in their Acknowledgments. After compiling a list of several agents, research them to ensure they are accepting new work and if they have specific requirements for querying them. Some agents want the first 10 pages in Word, others want the first three pages in the body of an email…don’t waste your time sending the wrong files to someone you’re really interested in working with. Do your research!
But how do you get published?!
That’s the million dollar question. At this point, it’s simply speculation for me so I’m very excited and eager to find out what the rest of this journey has in store for my manuscript. I have a problem – I’ve never known how to dream small. That makes accomplishing my goals really difficult because the bar is set so high for myself. I really look forward to receiving the professional feedback I expect from my editor and then plowing ahead with more edits to my manuscript. Then I’ll get an agent, seek traditional publication in a bidding battle for my book, then write the screenplay to turn it into a movie. It’s not that hard…right?
Check back in with Part 2 of this series after I receive my editor’s feedback. Wish me luck!
1 thought on “Book Writing Part 1: I Wrote a Book, Now What?”