Just how difficult is it to write a book?

This was posed to me last night, and a totally legit question. I know that many non writers often wonder, because maybe  they'd like to try their hand at it because they have an idea that's been nagging at their brain for some time. If they have that much, that's good because of course a book has to start with an idea.

An idea can come from anywhere. They have come to me from big events in my life and fleeting moments, newspaper articles and simple phrases. Sometimes the ideas are big and sometimes all I have is an opening line, a character or a title and I have to work from there.

Once you have your idea, you can either outline it or just start writing. I tend to do the latter. I just write until I can't write anymore. I"m called a "panster" because I write by the seat of my pants. This is the first draft of my novel.

By this point, many people who start writing a book have already given up. You have to be determined, motivated, and diligent to stick with writing a book from beginning to end. It's not easy. Things will get in your way -- job, kids, time, life in general. If you really want it, and really think you have a story to tell, stick with it.

In the second draft I deal with the sticky parts. Usually the sticky parts for me are the details, developing characters and places, figuring out the storyline in what us writers call the "murky middle" and well, *cough* the plot. I have to make sure I actually have one. I've had to at this point add characters into the book, cut thousands of words and add 10s of thousands of words.

Then there are usually a couple more drafts.

For me, editing comes next. I have a couple friends who I think are great editors. their work (editors can be wrong too you know, plus, they're all proper and shit and sometimes you don't want to be proper and shit).

Much better than me (though I see they don't know their lay, lie, lying, laying either). So I have them go through the manuscript and find my mistakes.  I am doing all my corrections hard copy now. I've proven to myself that if I just have them track changes on Word, I get lazy and don't really check them. Having them correct on a hard copy actually makes me read the entire manuscript again and even check

Next step is to get Beta Readers. These are a group of people to read your manuscript and give feedback. I like to choose a variety of people. My editor friends give me feedback as well, so they kind of count. I gather up a couple writer friends who can usually give me an idea about the plot, storyline and character development. Then I grab a couple people who are strictly readers who give me a blanket idea of how the book worked. Did they like the story? The characters? Were there any problems? If so, what were they? Were there any questions left unanswered?

I do another rewrite based on the information I've gathered from my Betas. Now, keep in mind, your Betas are giving you opinion and you may not agree. Change what you feel needs changing and toss the rest away. However, if they're all saying the same thing, you should probably listen. When I had Betas read my last book, Dissected, none of them liked my protagonist. So in my rewrite I had to make her more sympathetic and likeable.

After the rewrite I'll give it back to at least one editor for copy editing again. With all those new words in there, there are bound to be grammatical and punctuation errors.

I may give it a couple more reads for good measure, just to make sure it's as publishable as can be. The voila! You have a book with which you can either start querying agents or indie publish.

This is just the basics. You should also brush up on writing tips, like don't use too many adverbs, exclamation points or ellipses...crap like that. There are a ton of great books on writing out there and of course, the almighty Google.

What is your process? Do you have any questions or comments? Feel free to leave them. I try to respond to every one.

Wednesday Writing: A Tattered Life

I've not had much time to work on this, but it's my new WIP, based on the 2011 tornadoes that tore through the south. Jock Jaden who doesn't give a shit about anyone but himself, is having a fling with white trash, Payton behind his cheerleader girlfriend's back. He's supposed to be home with his mom picking up tornado debris from his yard. 

He has a lot to learn. 

Feel free to leave comments, but don't forget, it's a first draft.

We fling our seat belts off, move in and reposition our bodies so we’re as close as possible. My hands immediately make my way up Payton’s skirt, hers to my hair. Our desperate lips press together, having missed the forbidden taste of the others for the last twenty-four hours. She climbs up and straddles me, hands moving from my hair to my face. I don’t know why, but I love when she cradles my face in her hands. It feels very…intimate, which sounds stupid coming from me, because I’m not one of those overly sentimental guys. The rest of the gory details I save for Eli.

We sit quiet as we always do when it’s over, for a few minutes anyway. “I should take you home.”

“The bus.”

“Right. The bus.” She shot me a glare. Payton never lets me take her home. Not all the way anyway. It was the bus, or back to the diner, or back to school, or a few blocks away from home. Never just home. One day I think I’ll follow her and find out why.

I pull up to the bus stop, glance around to make no one is looking, then lean in and give Payton a peck on the cheek. She slides out of the truck and grabs her backpack. Before shutting the door she leans in as says, “Jaden, I—,” but stops short. She looks at her feet and stays quiet.

“What is it girl? I gotta get home. My mama’s gonna have my hide as it is.”

Looking back up she flashes a sad smile and says, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Okay, babe.” I watch her step back from the truck and stand next to the bus stop. I shake my head. For sure, that girl and I have little in common, but there is something between us, I’m just not sure what it is.