The Finished Product

When writing a book, there are a lot of different levels of finished. With Just Ella, the first time that I “finished” it, it wasn’t really finished at all. I’d completed the plot. There was a beginning, a middle, and an end. That’s good. It’s a huge step in the process, but it’s so far from being the end.

I got so excited that I had a “finished book,” I started delving into how to sell it to a publisher, or get an agent, etc… But as I did that research and then went back to my book, it was glaringly obvious that my book was not done. My setting was all over the place. The camera lens of my perspective was so zoomed in that there was only a vague reference to setting here and a little description there. I realized I didn’t know what the setting really looked like. And that was something I needed to figure out, because if the continuity of the setting wasn’t firm in my mind, there was no way it would come across to a reader.

So I went back and rewrote, keeping that in mind. Everything with the castle walls and the sneaking out came after, when the setting was able to inform my plot instead of existing on the vague periphery. That was one of many rewrite session.

I finished the rough draft of a novella the other day. Though, once again, saying finished is a misnomer. I completed the rough draft. This time is different from my first book because I KNOW it’s a ROUGH draft. And that’s okay, because I was able to hand it over to someone who will tell me a myriad of things that I need to fix and then I can go back and do it better.

After I do that edit, I’ll put in into someone else’s hands again, and they’ll tell me more ways to make it better. And I’ll do those things, and then I’ll give it to someone else…you get the idea.

I’m trying to be more patient with myself this time around. I want to go at a more measured pace instead of the jerks and stops and rushing to which I’ve become accustomed.

Bets on how well I’ll succeed?

Clean Romance Book Highlights:

A second Chance by Amelia C. Adams is on pre-order and releases on the 30th.

The Billionaire’s (Not So) Fake Engagement by Kimberly Krey is newly released.