Three Novels, One Novella and a Screenplay

It was a hot summer night in a cool downtown condo. The air was electric with anxiety, hope and raw ideas not yet formed into anything widely sharable. I had taken an "Intro to Novel Writing" course at George Brown College and a few of us keeners had kept in touch to continue writing and critiquing in a writing group. At the start four of us wanted to write novels, the other a screenplay. One novel changed to a novella and members dropped out and others joined through the progression of different writing courses.

And now two of them have finished and published their books! Woot! The first book is always the hardest to write, toughest to edit and the one that you are supposed to just get done, and quickly. This allows you to move on to the next, which will be markedly better according to everyone who says they know. I've certainly already failed at the getting it done quickly part.

It’s not a simple feat. Those without a trust fund or a financially supportive partner that are trying to write while maintaining a job and a life might give up on sleep, relationships/friendships, TV, or any kind of social life. I even know some writers (Not me!) who use their slow office hours to pound out some pages on the keyboard.

For these two ladies, there are some key things that I take from their experience, which can really translate to any goal you want to attain.

The Fantasy Novel, Eve's Return, by Crystal A. Bourque

Crystal is a truly talented writer. I know this because I generally hate reading fantasy novels and I love reading all of her writing. It is just so good. Her first novel, Eve’s Return, has a kickass storyline, kept me on the edge of my seat wanting more chapter-to-chapter, was full of characters that were real enough that the impossible actually seemed possible, and was well researched and appropriately detailed.

For Crystal to get it all done, it’s about discipline and making time.  Writing is literally her second job. She finishes her day job, has some dinner and then starts writing for the successful blog she’s developed, and for her novels. She is disciplined and sticks to this schedule, even when it means she has to sacrifice other things she may want to be doing with her time.

This would be hard for just about anyone. Lucky for Crystal her husband has come on board and also works with her on the blog. It’s a labour of love in so many ways.

The Novel turned Novella, Erin, Girl by Sandra Cunha

It is perfect.  Succinct, and entertaining, with a great message and moments of realization. A quick, fun read, with great writing and a fun character and voice that falls in line with the best chic lit. 

Sandra herself is focused. She eliminates anything from her life that might provide a distraction. For a while, she had an amazing blog (theme here: get a blog following, which both of these girls did, and readers might follow you to your first book and so on) called Living Lagom, and eliminated everything from her life that was not essential. Freeing up space and energy to focus on what she loves, writing.

She is firm with herself to get what she wants and needs. Instead of constantly complaining about grey cubicle walls that come with working in a corporation (can we please just get rid of these wretched grey cubicles? – no one likes them), she cuts back on spending to the point that she doesn't have to make extra money to keep up with her spending or maintain a regular corporate job.  

She also just bore down and got to the writing. Using the template of The 90-Day Novel by Alan Watts, she wrote until it was done, without big breaks in between. That strategy likely resulted in the crispness of the Novella. Not a lot of spare words or stray storylines to distract the reader.

Getting it Done

Both of these amazing writers had to cut other things out. There is no reward without sacrifice. They remained focused on their goal and didn’t waver.

I remember for one New Year’s resolution post, balance was my watchword. But I try to balance too many things and it all gets out of whack. Sacrifice and compromise are also two things that are essential in reaching goals, but they are not the easiest in real life. As you can see from the above examples, you really have to implement discipline, prioritize what is important to you, and sacrifice some of those things that fall to the bottom of that list.

Here’s hoping the rest of us wannabe published writers have a success story to tell one day!

Keep on writing on…

Afterthought: Sandra even acknowledged us in her novella with this:

My former writing group members: Ariel Balevi, Carrie Oreskovich, Hardish Dhaliwal, and original member, Susan Regular. The story has changed since we first met as a group, but I finally finished it. And as we promised to include each other in our acknowledgments if we ever published our books—consider yourselves acknowledged!