Ket to Simi: Writing a book, compared to writing a second one

During the early drafts of Beyond the Mountain, I was pretty obsessed. Every bit of interesting conversation I overheard, every new style of architecture I learned about, every possible plot complication I thought of, I wanted to cram into Beyond the Mountain. I didn't want to waste an opportunity to add something original or fascinating to my story. I was in love with my story. With the world, with the main character Ket, with all the other characters. I wanted her love interest to be my boyfriend. World building was my biggest trap. I wanted to make my world rich and alive, and to do that it needed to be big and varied, right? That's a big reason the first draft was 40,000 words too long.

A second reason was I didn't have the story pinned down. It was in my head for a couple years, but I didn't think I'd ever write it down, so it changed all the time. It was originally based on some fantasy version of Medieval England. Every few months the main plot events morphed. Ket was originally a princess, and went through about 5 names that never quite satisfied me.

Another big reason was that I hadn't yet studied the writing craft in depth. I thought you couldn't just jump from one event to the next without some kind of transition in between, and I also thought you had to put an awful lot of action beats into dialogue, because that's what books do. How else will the reader picture the characters interacting? It turned out I was remembering books wrong. A lot of the action beats I thought I remembered were actually what I imagined the characters doing as I read. Yes, I did read books while writing mine. But it's hard to read a new book and study it at the same time. It wasn't until I went back and read old favorites, that I realized how wrongly I'd been remembering them.

So I began to read lots of books about writing--books on storycraft, books on wordcraft, books on inspiration and living a writerly life. They've been immensely helpful. Reading novels and paying attention to the story elements and mechanics helps a lot. Reading my own bad writing helped way more than I expected. During the first draft of BTM, I toiled over every sentence. Even if nobody ever saw that draft, I hated to think that bad writing might exist in the world with my name on it. I couldn't figure out how to make myself write fast, but I figured if I wrote slowly and did it well, I'd have less to revise later.

Fast forward a couple years. Still revising. That first draft took me about 8 months. The next 4 drafts took about 2 years. I hope to publish it this year, but it still needs at least one more good revision.

So then, Simi. Unlike BTM, I outlined Simi. I wrote down the seed of the idea, but not much came of it for 4 months. Then I found a fabulous book on outlining (Planning Your Novel by Janice Hardy). I outlined for 6 weeks, and wrote the first draft in 30 days. Right now I'm 3/4 through the second draft.

I'm able to write faster now. I can draft without caring that there's bad writing with my name on it. To be fair, it's not nearly as bad as BTM's first draft. But it could be, and I wouldn't worry that someone might see it. And if they did, and I wouldn't care that much. Now that I know I can do better, I can acknowledge my first draft is sloppy, relax, and move forward. If I have a great idea, I don’t try to squeeze it into my WIP, I just write it down for some future book.

I can see so many ways I’ve grown as a writer in the past 3.5 years. Here are the stages I’ve gone through:

1. ​I’m awesome. My story is awesome. It’s so unique and my sentences are perfect. Reread my chapters just because they’re so perfect. I’m in love with my characters. And withheld information, I’m so clever!
   
2. Reading books on the craft. Yep, good note. Good note. That’s a good point, too. Um, there’s kind of a lot to remember about writing. How am I supposed to remember all this at once? Read dozens, and maybe it will sink in.
3. Print my first draft, one-sided and double spaced so I can make lots of notes. Use up a whole ream. Arrange a system of different pen colors for making notes. I'm so organized!
4. Read draft. My writing is clumsy. My characterization is all over the place. But my world is so vivid! Wait, my world is way too detailed. I don't need to describe roasting meat this many times. I’ll cut 1 or 2 instances.
5. Practice querying agents in my head. No way would I ever self publish. I’m a real author, and won’t give up until my book is good enough for a real publisher. Plan to make a portfolio of all my inevitable rejection letters as trophies. Mourn the fact that newbie authors have a harder time selling longer books. My manuscript is 130,000+ words. It's a gem the way it is. Meticulously search for words and phrases to cut. Make the wording smoother and add punchy verbs.
6. I can combine half this scene with another, and cut the rest. I can delete that other chapter entirely. And that withheld information? Not that awesome. Kind of confusing, actually, and poorly done. Why did I think my words were so brilliant?
7. Writing books are all starting to sound the same now. I know all this stuff. I guess that makes me an expert.
8. A traditionally published author has little or no say in their cover art? Indie publishing doesn't look so bad now.
9. Get feedback from betas. Cry. It's going to take SO MUCH work to fix the problems. Multiple chapters have no tension!
10. Meanwhile, outline a new book in 6 weeks. Draft in 30 days. Don't stress over beautiful language. Ignore word count. Print draft double-sided with small print. Don't care about color coding notes. Just make it easy to read and save paper. The draft is pretty clean, and I don't have to cut parts. Every scene has a purpose. Why didn’t I try outlining and fast drafting sooner?
11. I don't care that much about this new story or the characters. Why? Am I a hack putting productivity ahead of heart? Flesh out the world building. Flesh out Simi's passions. Start to care about the characters.
12. Re-read writing craft books. Nod. Nod. I know all this stuff, but a refresher and a checklist are always nice. I'm no expert, but I'm not a hack either.

As you can see, some things swing back and forth. Others have simply changed. I alternate between thinking I'm awesome and thinking my words and stories are garbage. Sometimes I feel both ways in the same week or the same day. But I'm getting better at the writing process. I have a better grip on story structure, pacing, and making personalities clash. Varying sentence structure and skipping unnecessary actions come more naturally now. I know how to fast draft so I don't get carried away with wordiness, or get bogged down researching details rather than getting the story on paper.

It reminds me of parents. I’m not one, but I’ve seen several first-time parents who wash the passy every time it falls on the floor, read parenting books, and run after their kid every time he toddles somewhere. By the second kid, they’ve outgrown washing passies, and every so often they’ll look up and ask if anyone happens to know where their kid went off to. They still swing between thinking they’re good parents and thinking they’re terrible parents, but this parenting thing is starting to fall into a routine.

There are still things I want to learn to do better. I would love to write a book with more characters, and I would love to write a series. Both require increasing the scale of the story in one or more ways (cast, geography, timeline, stakes, complications, etc.)--and that's what I have trouble with, coming up with enough story to fill the pages of even one book and keep a reader hooked.

I can't yet compare the revision processes of the two books, but I can already see that my second book has been faster and smoother than my first. I still love the world and characters of BTM more, because I've spent so long with them. I wrote BTM because I had a story to write. I wrote Simi because I had to write a story. But as I revise and research the world, Simi is coming more alive for me. And this second time around, I feel a little bit like I know what I'm doing.

​Have you ever started a new project or hobby, and wanted to do everything at once? Running, sewing, horseback riding? Let me know in the comments below.