I’m Writing a Book

Welp…the title says it all. I am writing a book and I’ve been harping on the same thing ever since I was in middle school. Now, I’m 21 and almost ten years have gone by since I first had the thought. However, when I decided to make up a story, I did not do it out of admiration of other creators. I did it out of jealousy. Yep. I was a preteen jealous that other people had these amazing, unique worlds that came out of their minds and I wanted one of my own. The catalyst was Avatar: the Last Airbender. I loved that world. It was such an amazing concept to me and I wanted to explore something like that, so I strove to bring about my own world. That was when I was twelve, but a lot of things have changed since then. The plot has gotten twisted, characters have been changed, etc. At this very point in time, I am in between the first and second draft of my book. Right now, I’m writing down location descriptions and solidifying characters before I start the rewrite. It’s an overwhelming experience, but also an amazing one.

Even though I have been writing and developing this story for 10+ years, don’t think that I know everything about the industry or even 10%. In between writing, I am reading books from my favorite authors, making sketches of potential illustrations, skimming books on writing, and looking up writing positivity quotes on Tumblr and Pinterest so I don’t lose my mind. Y’know. The usual. I don’t have an agent or a publicist. None of that stuff. I’ve honestly just been talking to my professors and my parents. It’s just me and scrivener trying to make this tango work. The only difference between writing as an adult versus writing as a kid is that now I can afford to buy a boat load of iTunes gift cards in order to purchase Scrivener, as opposed to loose leaf paper and composition books. This means that you can write too, no matter what stage you find yourself in. Is it hard? Yes, but even as someone who hasn’t even thought about marketing this thing yet, it feels worth it every time I think about why I started.

Goals

I would like to finish the rewrite for my second draft in February. Now that I have started messing with Scrivener, I have a better sense of how I can structure my novel. Still, I literally just downloaded it last week, so I am still getting a feel for it. Right now, I’m in the middle of writing character sheets and then I’ll be writing up descriptions of different locations. Also, saying that I want the second draft done by February freaks me out a little bit, but I think I can get it done. Since this is my biggest personal project right now, this topic or related topics will be likely what I will be blogging about.