Behind the Scenes of Writing a Book

So you have decided that you want to write a book.
Cool.
You grab some paper, pens, jot down a few ideas, maybe outline something, then you get going.
You write a story, and it's the coolest thing you've ever written.

It's not good enough.
Sorry, but it's true.

Let me tell you a personal story in which I learned this lesson the hard way.

When I was 16, I wrote this fantastic story. The characters lived in my head. I ate, drank, and breathed this story. It was my life.

I finally finished the first copy when I was 17.
It was perfect. I couldn't think of a thing that needed to be changed.

Then I gave it to my brother, who is a fantasy book expert. (not really).
He wrote all over it, told me what he really thought about it.

Apparently it wasn't as perfect as I thought it was.
I did what any author would tell you to do.
I put the book away for a few months, then got it back out and started editing with fresh eyes.
Boy, was my brother right! There was so much wrong with it.

After I edited it, I put it away again.
This time, it stayed away for a year.
In that time, I began writing other things, expanding and honing my skills.
While I learned a great deal, I still knew next to nothing about actually writing a book. (Though I thought I knew it all, because I had read about writing, and obviously I was a natural born talent).

Well, a year later I realized the book wasn't really worth keeping.
So I stared over. I opened a new word document and I redid the whole thing from scratch.
Of course, the characters were still in my head. Most of the story was too.
So it was easier this time.
But it was also harder. Because I knew I had a draft already, and that draft lived in my head too.
It was hard to remember what was in the original draft and what was in this draft.

When I was halfway done with the book, I decided that I needed to stop referencing the old draft and literally write from scratch.

I gave the copy to my brother. I jokingly told him I would sign it for him so if I was ever famous, he could sell it and get a lot of money. I gave him the copy and wiped it out of my mind.

Four years and two more drafts later, my harddrive crashed.
My entire story was gone. I gave up.
I pushed the characters and the plot into the back of my mind to die there.
I had been so dedicated to this book. I had drawn maps, and made up my own language and planet, and it had let me down.


I was complaining about it one day when my brother comes out of his room with this:

I was completely shocked. I thought I had thrown it away.

He said, "Remember? You autographed it for me so that when you published it, I could sell it for lots of money."

He made it seem like he was only in it for the money, but he had kept my manuscript for four years.
FOUR.
YEARS.

It was then that I finally realized that my characters would never die, because I still had a story to tell.
I began writing it again. Four and a half years after the original draft that I thought was so perfect, I completed my third draft.

This time, I was fortunate enough to find a site called inkpop. I posted my book to it right away and began asking for other writer's opinions.
The advice they gave me was priceless. I grew so much talking to these people and learning what they had to offer me and my story.

It has been almost six years since I began this story. It may be another six until I finish it.
The characters' names have all been changed. Characters left, characters came.
The title and nearly the whole plot is completely different.
But the souls of the characters are still there. The essence of the story is the very same.
Who knows how many more years and re-writes this book will need.
But one day, the story will be told.

I have used this blog for many things. I have used it for personal stories and funny jokes. The main purpose, however, is to teach you how to write.
The most important lesson I could ever teach you, though, is the one I hope you got from this.
I hope that today I have not taught you how to write, but why to write.

Write because you have a story the world has not heard before.
Write because people believe in you.
Write because you CAN do it.
Write because you believe in yourself.