When I first started writing I had no knowledge of the writing craft. I just knew that the story had to have a beginning, middle and end. So there I was busy writing my first story and madly using Google to find out more about the writing process. Along the way I picked up a lovely c.p. and later another but I always seemed to be battling to finish a story. I would keep hitting blocks and loose interest in what I was writing eventually one of my c.p's challenged me to look at a online call for stories and meet the deadline.
And what did I discover? I needed deadlines to work too!
So I started work on the novella and once I outlined it I found some days it would take longer to meet my personal words targets but if I refused to get my butt of the chair till I had met my minimum word goals I would eventually still be writing after I had reached it.
So there you have it set goals even if it is as little as a paragraph or 500 words a day and eventually they add up.
Once I had completed the first draft my c.p took over it and gave me an excellent critique and from there I polished it.
Them I subbed it and waited and waited. Only to finally one day to open my email to see the dreaded rejection letter.
I tried sending it to various other publishers but always had good comments but they weren't interested in it. I knew I had a good story on my hands but couldn't find a home for it.
One of my c.P's had mentioned self publishing to me but I hadn't been paying much attention and when I lost her after she moved countries i decided to give it another look. I found amazon kindle direct publishing and realised I already had all the skills I needed to publish my own book. I took the plunge and I am extremely happy about it. I am still learning but its an adventure that I'm loving.
So in summary the steps I took and keep using:
1. Great idea
2. Outline. I tend to write an overview of the entire story the break it down into chapters as well as character descriptions and anything about characters that comes to mind. But i'm also flexible in that as I write if something happens in the story and it feels right I go with it.
3. I set daily word goals and self imposed deadlines. But for me I have stopped beating myself over not meeting them. I used to get depressed and very upset if I never met my goals but I have come to realise that being a mum with a one year old my time is no longer my own and I need to be flexible with my personal expectations. As long I can get some writing down on a daily basis I am very happy.
4. Polished/rewrite and get my c.p's involved.
5. While the book is with c.P's I start looking at images to create a cover.
6. Do edits and send it off to c.p again this stage sometimes is repeated several times till I'm sick of even looking at it that's when I know its time to format for publishing.
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