From childhood I’ve been on a long journey towards something. Something elusive. Something that while I’ve always thought myself capable, I’ve never in my long career managed to achieve. That something is tackling and completing writing a novel. On 29 May 2020 I typed the 100,625th word of my first novel. The journey to write this novel has been long. The journey to write a novel has been longer. I always felt that if I could complete one book that I would not only prove to myself that I was capable, but I will have taught myself by having undertaken the journey, how to do it again. And again.
In the last 3 weeks I’ve been working on the first rewrites of my first novel. I’ve always known that the real crafting is in the rewrites, and that is proving true. This is where you finesse the work, craft the story into something that becomes more than just words on a page. But my enthusiasm hasn’t stopped there. I outlined the second book of the series and I’m now on Chapter 5 of the new book. I’m also outlining the first book of a second series that I intend to start working on soon.
My intention has always been to publish my work as an independent. So alongside of the writing, I’ve been learning about book cover design, copy editing and book production as well as building a following, marketing and PR. It’s a complicated process, with no guarantees of success. For me, writing and eventually publishing the first book is a learning journey, and one that I hope will enable me to both write and publish more books in the future.
I hope you are able to follow along with me, and I hope that this journey is a long and successful one. But I guess we will see. It’s definitely going to entail a lot of hard work, trial and error, and ultimately luck. And so, please, wish me luck.