What It’s Like To Write A Book

You may or may not know that I’ve written a book. Actually, I’ve written two, but only one has been professionally edited, since it’s the first in my series. At the time that this post is being written, my book is not yet published. But being published and turning my writing into a full-time job is my ultimate goal.

Many people ask what exactly it’s like to write a whole 90,00+ word book, and most don’t know what the process involves. Neither did I, before I started my on my first book! But I thought it’d be entertaining to tell you about my experience.

Before we get into this, let me say that I’m, obviously, not a professional. I began writing my book when I was twelve years old, after all. So this information is all from personal experience.

It takes longer than expected

Four years, to be exact. Well, that’s not the case with everyone, but I’m not a super speedy writer. Maybe if I quit school, work, and everything else I have going on in my life, I’d be able to cut the writing journey to two years or so. But no matter how busy your personal life is, believe me when I say writing a book takes much longer than anticipated.

Your first draft isn’t the same book as your final edit.

When I finished my first draft – that is, when I finished typing out the book from beginning to end – I foolishly thought my manuscript was complete. I had that first version printed onto paper, and now, three or so years later, after all the editing has been done, I cannot believe that it’s even the same book. After beta readers and editors went through my book, a lot of necessary changes needed to happen.

Now I feel sorry for the friends and family who read my first draft and told me it was good . . . thank you all for sparing my feelings.

Inspiration is everywhere.

I’ve said this before, but if I have a funny, cute, or even heated conversation with someone, there’s a chance it could end up in one of my books. No, not the entire conversation with all the details, but bits and pieces of it.

People are inspiration, and so are conversations and awkward/funny/tense situations.

You spend a TON of time researching and flipping through a Thesaurus.

Seriously. You might as well sit down with a cup of coffee and read through an entire Thesaurus (and maybe a dictionary while you’re at it) before you get started.

There will be moments where you threaten to kill your computer.

I’ve had many of these moments through the years, and they aren’t pleasant. Either I can’t think of the right way to phrase a sentence, or my computer has deleted a good portion of my writing, etc. It’s during frustrating situations like those that I want to literally shoot my computer and forget this whole book thing ever happened.

On some days you’ll feel like the best writer ever – and on others you’ll feel like the worst.

This is probably pretty common for any artist, and it sucks. It’s nearly impossible to not compare yourself to other writers and then feel terrible about your work. And honestly, I don’t have any tips on this one. It still happens to me all the time.

Hearing how terrible your book is from an editor is brutal.

If you’re preparing to get your manuscript back from an editor, I hope you’re also preparing to cry for a few days. Getting feedback from a professional (or just anyone), and hearing them talk about everything you did wrong in your novel, is really hard. Sometimes it takes a couple days to process this kind of criticism, but in the end, you’ll see how much better your editor made your book.

The publishing process is the worst, and EVERYTHING costs money.

Lots and lots of money will go down the drain . . . between editors, beta readers, proofreaders, cover designers, marketing, and then actually publishing, it all adds up.

And navigating the publishing world is super complicated and stressful. It definitely helps to know someone who has published before, so you can learn from their mistakes. Also, watching an author on Youtube like this one is really helpful. She has good tips for writing, editing, and publishing.

Now, at this point, I realize I’ve made the process of writing a book sound like a long and tedious (maybe even torturous) journey . . . and honestly, that’s kind of true. BUT. If you love to write like I do, it’s all worth it. The amazing feeling of creating something from nothing, using only words and a story you created in your mind is worth the stress.