Writing update and cover peek

Lessons I've learned from my WIP ✍️

May 26, 2023

⚠️ANNOUNCEMENT⚠️ My print book prices are going up. If you want to buy them at current prices, you have one week left to do so before I put the prices up. This is to cover an increase in printing costs.

Note: Bit of a ramble about my writing process today 😅 Keep scrolling and you’ll find a sneak peek of my cover design below.

Every phone call with my parents these days, my mum asks, “When’s the book coming out?” I tell her I’m still working on it, and I haven’t set a release date yet. At that point my dad chimes in with, “I thought you said it was almost finished.”

No, Dad. I said I had finished the first draft. That does not mean it’s almost finished. Not by a long shot.

My writing process isn’t one draft, one quick edit, then done. I wish it was. In reality, I have actually done four drafts of this book to various stages of completion (Completing my “first draft” was actually my fourth), and what I’m working on now is technically my fifth draft. I do believe this will be my final draft. I have a couple of minor structural issues to fix, but apart from that, the next round should be a light edit.

Even though I have already written and published four novels, writing this book has been a big learning process for me. Some of the lessons I have learned include:

I’m a discovery writer, so I will likely think of new plot directions while in the process of writing (no matter how thoroughly I’ve outlined beforehand).
Due to my discovery writing, there is no point in polishing early drafts because I’ll end up having to make big changes anyway, throwing away tons of words.
I need to keep the forward momentum. Note down plot changes I want to make and keep going as if the new plot is already in place. Don’t go backwards to make fixes.
Final draft = complete rewrite. It’s easier than trying to wrangle my monstrosity rough drafts into shape.
I vastly prefer polishing/editing to coming up with new words.

The biggest mistake I have made with this manuscript is spending too much time writing beautiful scenes, then realising I want to make a change to the plot, and having to throw out those scenes because they no longer work with the new plot.

For future manuscripts, I’m excited to try Steff Green’s skeleton drafting method, which I think will really help me speed up my writing process. I feel cautiously optimistic that my next book will come together much faster than this one! 🤞

-Sara