A couple of years ago, I lost a book.
Not an actual physical book – I take very good care of those – but rather, I lost a book I was writing.
I’d written about 30,000 words (31,486 to be exact) and I stopped writing it.
It wasn’t the book’s fault – life just got in the way and for a year or more I didn’t write anything.
When I came back to my writing desk, I started something new…
That ‘something new’ blossomed into a really exciting book (Flight to Coorah Creek) – which I hope you will enjoy when it’s published next year.
Then I sat down to ask the question – what will I write next. I have a couple of ideas bubbling away… but then the unfinished book came up in conversation. I decided to take another look at it.
Suddenly, I was back in that story again. It’s a good story. Bits of it made me laugh. Bits of it threatened to bring a tear to my eye. And now I am writing it again, because I want to finish telling that story.
It wasn’t an easy decision to do make. There are a few bad personal memories associated with this book. But having decided to do it… here’s how I went about it.
First – I read the manuscript – right from page one to the rather abrupt halt in the middle of chapter 13. I read it as a reader – not as a writer. I wanted to see if there really was a good book in there… and the answer was a resounding yes!
So – I read it again – this time armed with a red pencil and some coloured post-it notes (coloured stationary is important to my writing). With these I started editing it. I’ve written another book since I last touched this, which means I have learned just a little bit more about being a good writer. I had improvements to make.
Then – I looked at my notes and my research to remind myself of the time and place where the book is set.
Then I re-read my character sketches.
When I am writing a book, I always make notes about each character. The amount detail in those notes depends on how important the character is. For my hero and heroine – reading those notes was like getting back together with an old friend after a long absence.
Then – I started writing. The words are flowing pretty well, which is a good sign.
And this time I’m not going to stop until the story is told.