How I Wrote my Book Part One: First Draft Fun

The responses when I tell people I've written a book are almost universally the same:

"Oh, I totally have a book in me too."

OR

"I should start writing a book. I have so many good stories!"

The admission that you've actually written one almost serves as a wake-up call for others to start writing their own tales. Visit online writing groups or Twitter or a book shop and it becomes quite obvious that a lot of people have books inside them just waiting for the opportunity to bust out. 

But it's a bit of a long and winding road from these statements to a "finished" product. It's not like saying "I've always wanted to skydive," booking the lesson, and then having it completed by month's end. It's probably one of the hardest things I've ever done, and the longest project I've ever worked on. We'll keep the exact number of years a secret, k?

In any case, I did take the leap from idea to "finished" product (a book is never really finished until you decide to stop working on it). For those itching to get their book onto the page, I thought I'd share my process for writing, then editing, and then trying to publish my book. It's always helpful to see what other people have done and sometimes can act as a good trigger to get started. It's a pretty perfect pandemic isolation activity. You know, if you can get motivated enough to log off of Netflix. 

Here was my process to get to a first draft:

1. What is the Story?

As many of you know, I spent a year in Japan and it was one of the best years of my life. I learned so much in that time as I find that when you separate yourself from the ties that bind you back home, and from all of those societal expectations that creep up on you, you get a chance to really look at who you are and what you want out of life. It's the classic travel-memoir concept and I find these stories incredibly fascinating, provided they are well-written. I unequivocally enjoy seeing other people figure out life against the backdrop of an interesting place that I'd love to visit. So I thought I'd give it a go and try to create an interesting story arc around what actually happened. I'd start by writing little snippets here or there but really wanted to have a bigger and better plan for making the book readable. This is where my education began...

2. Learn all the Secrets

Writing a book is not as simple as it may sound. Blog posts, where a singular topic is introduced without any requirement to keep someone reading to the next blog, are pretty easy to focus on. Writing a close-to 100,000-word manuscript and actually weaving the story together in a way that is compelling enough to encourage the reader to keep reading requires both a good voice and a good story arc (in my opinion).

So I took to the continuing education sector, mostly at George Brown College, topped off by a week at the Humber School for Writer's summer camp (grown-up camp is the best). I took Writing Short Stories, and Novel Writing 1 and 2 (even though I was writing a memoir, I wanted it to read like a novel). I found these courses to be instrumental in my writing. You learn about character plotting, building a story arc, creating tension, synopsis, plot development, writing dialogue, pitching an agent, and the list goes on. 

If nothing else, these courses can help you find your writing community. Often at the end of a course, a number of students form writing critique groups that give you first reactions to the writing, the momentum to keep going, and also the support needed through many an insecure moment. One of my critique groups met for years at a restaurant called the Madison every other Wednesday for half-priced appetizers, beer, and chapter critiques. It definitely kept me going. The teachers in these courses are writers themselves, so offer great advice based on their experiences, and become part of your network moving forward as well. 

There are umpteen other places to find community if you don't feel like taking a course. Start googling writing and Facebook will start feeding you Ads for a bunch of different free writing courses or podcasts that will then try to hook you into other paid courses. There are Medium articles, blogs, Twitter, and Instagram accounts, and Meet-ups all dedicated to writing. The writing community is thriving, fascinating, and super supportive, so seek and you shall find. 

Some groups I use and like: 

• The Writing Gals 
• Canada Writes
• The Manuscript Academy
• Quick Brown Fox
• So You Want to Write?

If you want to take your education outside of the classroom, you can buy umpteen books on writing a book (I've heard a lot of great things about "The 90-day novel").

And the best way to learn how to write is to read! It's so helpful to see how others have organized the telling of their stories. What sections they've used, how they've broken out chapters, where they reached the climax of the story, etc. 

3. Create a Compelling Arc

The best thing I learned from my novel writing course was to create a story arc that was compelling. We learn about this in high school but it's helpful to work on it and receive feedback from experts and colleagues. A good arc creates movement in the book, a clear cadence for the reader, and ensures that your character is leaving the story having grown in some way. I translated the novel suggestions into memoir, taking some liberties with the order in which events took place in an effort to ensure the reader was engaged (don't worry I'll mention this in the intro). 

Once I had an arc, I sectioned it out into key timeframes (my book was sectioned into the four seasons of the year), and then within each section, I plotted out the chapters with associated stories to focus on.

 

4. Write it All Down

This was the BEST part of writing the book. I'd brainstorm a bunch of stories that I wanted to capture, and then I would schedule time at a cute cafe, I'd order some coffee, maybe a brownie, and I'd get writing. It really is the most romantic part of writing. The sound of indie music playing in the background, the collection of minds sputtering away on their individual projects around you, the opportunity to check out cool coffee shops with an appealing aesthetic. I would go back to this phase at any point (post-COVID of course)!

At the time I was writing my book, my favourite spot was a little gem called Ezra's Pound in Toronto. Vintage wooden furniture, eclectic art for sale, always full and staffed with Baristas who really knew where it was at in the music scene. Back then, one of the Baristas played the "Oh My Heart" CD (yes CD) from the band Mother Mother on a continuous loop. They have since become my favourite band. Every time I hear a song from that album I'm transported back to that magical time when I could write with total abandon and no pressure to edit. Oh, and when I got chocolate chip cookies as reward for a good day of writing. 

I used Scrivener to organize my writing. Still not sure it’s the best, but it allows you to set up your sections and chapters and easily move things around and compile to print.

5. Knit it Together

I started jotting down my stories before I had a proper story arc in place. So a lot of my early work was knitting it all together. I would have done this a bit more seamlessly if I were to do it again. I'd create the arc with associated sections and chapter descriptions and then fill in the stories. Trying to fit your stories into a pre-existing arc takes a bit more time. Hence the 8+ years it took to write my book (oops I said it!), including editing of course which took up the bulk.

6. Pause to Celebrate Before the Endless Editing. 

It took me probably about 4 years to write the first draft, though a combination of 1-hour early morning sessions to little chunks of time at coffee shops on the weekend. I'd put it down for a while and then pick it back up. Finishing is a feat in and of itself. Take the time to celebrate! 

There are a lot of gates along the way to determine if you should keep going. When I started writing my book the travel memoir was very popular. I had no idea that my book would take so long to write, and that by the time I was ready to start pitching, the trend would be history. It's not the type of book sought after right now, certainly not by an unknown author. In any case, I've decided to try and pursue publishing.

I'll talk to you about the editing process next, and then my plan to either secure an agent, obtain a small publisher, or self-publish. Every time I think of any one of these I go a bit crazy with all the to-dos, so I'm trying hard to just focus on one thing at a time. 

What good supports have you found along the road to writing a first draft?