Or, rather, I’ve been writing this book for a little over a year and a half.
I’m still in the drafting stage, but I’m pretty happy with how it’s going.
Do I think it’s going to be a good book after I’ve finished? I have no idea. I hope so, but I’m enjoying it regardless!
This would (will!?) be the blurb on the back of the book:
There are Wielders (people with magic) and Farers (people without magic).
Wren Mere is a Human Farer and librarian. After her father comes home injured and unable to work, she accepts a position at the Wielder university as a research assistant to a visiting elven scholar. As the two pursue their research, they begin to uncover the many secrets that the university hides and, unfortunately for Wren, some of them affect her more than she’d like.
Toril Stonebright is a powerful half-Elven Wielder. His magical proficiency would usually mean that he would have a long, comfortable life. However, as Toril was born with gray hair, he will have a human lifespan. He has read mentions of a text that could offer him an elven lifespan in the hands of the right Wielder. He searches for this book while also contending with being forced into a competition at the castle to find a spouse, which he thinks is rather unimportant in the grand scheme of things.
I’m surprised by how close I’ve gotten to my characters. They feel real to me, which I feel bad about because I’m kind of terrible to them.
I’m not sure how often I’m going to write about the book itself, but I will post about my writing process. It’s definitely been a learning curve, and there have been a few things that I’ve found helpful while drafting.
Here are the three main ones:
Books
I love books on writing. I do have to be careful because I’ve found that reading about writing is a form of procrastination. The book I’ve been referencing the most often is Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody. It’s really good and I love the number of examples she gives.
The main point from most books on writing: you’ll learn the most by sitting down and actually writing. Which is a bit tragic, but I have found it to actually be the case. The books offer a bit of structure and confidence for me, but sitting down and writing is the best.
Scrivener
Scrivener is a writing program that helps to organise your writing. It can be a bit complicated, but I’ve found it great once I figured out how to use some of the main features.
I was originally using Microsoft Word and then Google Docs to draft, and those are excellent, but I do find Scrivener makes accessing different files easier. It’s wonderful for organising your work – especially different scenes.
I don’t think I use it correctly, if there is a correct way to use it, but I’ve been enjoying it. Recently, I’ve taken all of my scenes out of their chapters and now I’ve got a list of scenes, which I am finding easier to draft. Concentrating on a scene instead of a chapter is a lot less intimidating for me, so I’ve been enjoying writing more and getting more writing done. Can’t beat that!
Friends!
A couple of friends and I started a virtual writing group. I used to meet one of them regularly at a cafe to write.
Due to lockdown and the other restrictions, we haven’t been able to.
Now, we’ve got a little Discord chat and we meet on there once or twice every couple of weeks to talk about writing. I’ve found I don’t get too much actual writing done during these sessions, but they are a lot of fun and I’ve gotten a lot of brainstorming done – my friends have helped me work out some major plot issues. And I love hearing about their books! One friend is at the drafting stage with me, but the other has finished her draft and is in the editing process. She’s been blogging about the experience and her posts are great. I recommend checking out her posts here!
My Impressions
I think the similar theme of all three of these points is that they help me feel supported. I’m not a particularly confident person, and while writing (and blogging) I feel an incredible amount of imposter syndrome. I’ve let it stop me before, but no longer! I have tried to write books before, but I’ve never managed to finish one. I’m feeling really good about this one and I’m (mostly) enjoying the process.
I’m also going to participate in Nanowrimo this year in the hopes that I will finish my draft. The idea for Nano is to write 50 000 words in a month. My draft is already around 65 000 words, but I can always cut the word count down during editing (and will probably have to!).
I’ll write an update during the middle of November. Hopefully, I’ll be on track! I have loads of extra holiday this year and I’ve booked off the last couple of weeks of November so that I can dedicate some more time to finishing my first draft.
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