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How did I do it? How did I write a book?
My 3rd book will soon be published in the fall of 2023. It’s available to pre-order right now on Amazon.
In the meantime, let’s take a trip back in time and dive into the nitty-gritty details of how I managed to get my first book’s story from my head, onto paper, and then bound into a book.
To witness where I started and where I ended up was mind-blowing, and still is to this day.
You should know before I begin that it wasn’t all sunshine and unicorns. It took a bucket-load of discipline and tenacity in order to reach a goal like that. Tooting my horn? Maybe. But it is what it is.
I had a story that was swimming around in my head for years and I had to get it down on paper.
The first step was where to write.
I chose a local coffee shop in my ‘hood because, at home, there were too many distractions. You know, food, phone, and TV. At that time, there was no social media – and I’m glad that it wasn’t around because, for my first book, I needed all the focus I could get. I also made sure that this coffee shop wasn’t that popular. I didn’t want to run into too many people I knew because I didn’t want to be interrupted and I wasn’t ready to explain what I was doing. Yet!
The second step was what to use.
I bought a pretty notebook and a really good pen and began to write. The process was similar to how I used to write in my diary as a teen, which was a little nostalgic and made me smile.
I didn’t have a laptop at that time and for some reason, I wanted to write it all by hand. I wrote for two to three hours, three to four days a week. I didn’t want to write every day because I had other things on my plate (small children) and it was a great way to prevent writer’s block. Which I still got, by the way. Everyone does. You can’t avoid it. You just embrace it.
Nine months later, I had my first draft.
That, my darlings, is definitely not the end. Then came many many and many more steps.
I then took the notebook and re-typed the whole thing. Today, I type directly on a laptop, which erases that step and saves oodles of time. Although I still seem to be re-writing and re-writing all. the. time.
I submitted my manuscript to 10 publishers and got rejected by them all. Most of them said, “I just wasn’t into the story”.
This rejection was very hard to take. How did I handle it? I screamed. I cried and ate chocolate. Of course, I asked the universe WHY??!!??
I finally calmed down and reminded myself in a very gentle and loving way, that this was a part of the process of writing a book. I was used to the “constructive criticism” from being a copywriter in the advertising industry. So, with the help of an editor who really brought out the best of my writing, I went back to the drawing board.
Several months later I had another draft. And another, and another. And yes, another. A writer’s job is to re-write which I think is a fun activity and therefore worked in my favour. I then had the final draft which I printed out and put into a three-ring binder.
A three-ring binder wasn’t going to cut it for the masses. I needed this book to be bound with a beautiful cover. My son generously designed the cover. I found a self-publishing company and the job was done and done well.
How did I do it? The proof is in the pudding – right here.
Editor’s note: All images are a reenactment.