Harder Than You Think

Writing a novel is much harder than expected, and I am sure most people don't realize the time and effort that goes into writing the best book you can, before putting it out to the public. Those of us who begin this endeavor for the first time think that we will be able to accomplish this within a year...right!

A recent conversation I had with my brother-in-law and sister was about this very subject and how deciding to write a fantasy series takes more time than you can possibly imagine. Our topic was the new book in the George R R Martin series, (The Game of Thrones) and how his last book took 5 years to come out and we hope that his next book doesn't take as long. Scotte (my sister's husband) made a very good point, George Martin wants the book to be consistent with the rest of his story and ring true with the world he has created, so therefore it takes extra time.

So true, especially since my sister and I have run into a few places where we weren't consistent and needed to go back over the 200 pages we just went over. Whew! It is a lot of work! 

Now, after half way through the edits, we are going back to square one. I know, I know, when will this book get published. But it shouldn't take to much extra time and I am sure the book will be out by springtime. It's a matter of making an outline and keeping track of the story. 

I tried to do an outline when I first wrote the book, but I was making it up as I went along and the outline never matched up to where the story was going. Now that the story has been re-written, the outline will come in handy. Not only with consistency,  but also staying within the character's personalities and descriptions, and all the new character's that will come into play in the rest of the series.

My sister is such a doll and volunteered to type up the 'chart' we are going to use for our outline. And, my husband is going to make us a huge board to tack it up in front of us so this never happens again.

It shouldn't take us but a week or so to be back to where we were in the edits, and I am sure it will make the book even better for our readers. So, therefore we all have to be patient, but I think in the end, this book is going to be very well put together. I believe you will enjoy it and want to continue reading the series.

Again, thanks to all my friends and family out there that have been supportive of me and my novels. I do think you'll find that it was worth the wait!


Until Thursday, have a great week and don't forget to vote! This is a very important election!

Love, Lisa