“Writing the last page of the first draft is the most enjoyable moment in writing.” Nicholas Sparks
It’s alive! It’s alive!
Well, sort of.
I feel like a proud mad scientist, having stitched together my creation, given it its first breath of life.
But it’s not ready for the world to see, yet. There’s more work to be done.
So, the first draft of my horroromance is finished. It’s just a barely formed creature, unable to walk. (It’s probably afraid of fire, too.) The first draft is messy, rough, a spilling of all your ideas out of your head and into a usable form. It generally follows the plot I outlined at the outset, but – and this is what I love about writing novels – there are always surprises along the way! Characters develop a mind of their own, and then curious things happen that I didn’t expect.
“The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.” Terry Pratchett
Next comes Celebration! Some authors seem to produce numerous books in a year, but for me, it takes a lot of thought and planning, and often life gets in the way as well. Typing “The End” deserves some celebrating, and my lovely hubby took me out for dinner.
Now my novel rests while I step away from it to go back with fresh eyes. This is a critical step. Also, I have a house that needs cleaning. I’ve made some notations on my running plot spreadsheet of things that need fixing and improvements I want to make, but otherwise I won’t touch the draft or even look at it.
In about three weeks I’ll return to the world of The Summer Door and do the first edit. It’s an intensive process, starting with one read-through to get a general sense of the storyline, glaring errors and things that could be improved.
I’ve found writing a horror novel very different from my trilogy. Horror coats everything with a layer of dread. It’s not just a matter of getting my heroine from the start to the finish – she has to suffer and be terrified along the way. Since I’m not writing gore, I have to craft psychological torment deserving of the pickle she’s gotten herself into.
“Awful first drafts are fine… If you don’t finish something, you’ll never get in the game. Just quell the voice in your head that says “Are you kidding? No one is going to want to read this drivel” and keep on going. You’re going to revise and revise and then revise again anyway.” Jamie Freveletti
When I’m revised, and revised, and am satisfied, the edited copy goes to the first people who lay eyes on the book, my Beta readers. They’re a very dedicated and enthusiastic group who’ll give me the straight goods on what they liked and didn’t. As a horror novel, this is a shorter word count (typically 80k to 100k for psychological/supernatural horror, about half of what each of my urban fantasy novels have been), so I’ll request their feedback in three weeks instead of a month.
I’ll use this time to finish the front cover, spine and back cover designs, including the all-important ‘blurb’ – the few paragraphs that entice a prospective reader to buy the book.
With their feedback in hand, I’ll begin the final editing, final proofing, and prep the manuscript for uploading to Amazon. I also have to register the book for an ISBN – the International Standard Book Number, a 13-digit number that uniquely identifies each specific edition of a book or monograph from a publisher (i.e. me). I must list this number on Kindle Direct Publishing (the publishing arm of Amazon) during the upload procedure. They then complete the process from there, and I order whatever number of Author Copies I feel I’ll need for the live events that follow.
In October, I unpack the first shipment and admire fully-realized Creature 😊!
Just in time for my first live appearance for the year at dReadCon in Burlington. I did this convention for dark fiction and horror last year, and had so much fun! Plenty of great writers and vendors of merchandise, and the most enthusiastic crowd of any!
Then a mere week later (yes, I’m apparently a glutton for punishment), I’m taking my first crack at perhaps the premiere horror convention in Canada, Frightmare in the Falls. Three days of fear-fest! I’m so looking forward to this one, to the atmosphere, to all the creepy goodies, to the celebrity guests (not announced yet), to the crowd of fellow creep-lovers. You’ll find me in a corner booth again, leaning much farther into the dark Halloween vibe for this one!
And finally, in early December, because my novel is also a dark romance, I’m doing my first ‘adult’ romance convention: Pages & Pleasures in Hamilton. Only a six-foot table, so not much room for all the décor of the previous events. But these conventions are hugely popular, and my novel, with a three-chili pepper spice level (medium spice, a fair bit of sex but it’s neither overly explicit nor the dominant feature of the plot), will fit right in. There are many different kings of ‘romance’ these days, from sweet to monstrous (more in a later post), and I felt it would give an interesting dimension to my heroine’s predicament, as well as introduce my writing to an entirely different market.
The convention says it “doesn’t shame your kink”. And there will apparently be vendors with “toys”. Should be interesting, and a very different vibe from the conventions I’ve done so far 😉
In addition to the one-day convention, on the night before, my hubby and I will be attending the Frostbitten & Forbidden Winter Fantasy Ball associated with it – glitter, ballgowns, cosplay, drinks and dancing.
Because I love to meet my readers. I really do. Not all authors embrace this aspect of modern marketing, but I want to go beyond an online interface or a printed page. I love to connect face-to-face and chat.
So that’s the process for an indie author. It involves some work, but the ultimate reward is when someone lets me know how much they’ve enjoyed my novel.
I hope to meet some of you at one of these events. Watch my Events page for more details as they become available, including a pre-order link for dReadCon.