How not to write a book!

  How not to write a book! M aybe I'm too ambitious but my story is taking a very long time to write.  Very.  I'm still in the rough draft stage and i'm still writing the outline.  Even though I'm close to being finished with the outline I know I'm a super slow writer compared to other authors.  Then again I am still a newb at this whole process.  I don't know if it's normal for writers nowadays to physically write their outlines.  I do.  And I don't just write short chapter summaries I like to write almost everything that happens in the story.  So when it's time to type I won't have many roadblocks.  For my outline I'm using three composition notebooks.  Yes three.  I've filled one, halfway done with another, and using the third for notes. 
Here are my babies.  Seriously they're my babies, if I lose one Mean Boys would never get finished.  Everything that happens in Mean Boys is written in these three books.  All the plot twists, romance, drama, fighting, sexual situations, everything.  Without these books my characters would be flat and lifeless.  No back stories, no history, no personalities.  These notebook are my life.  Pretty much.  The downside of writing out a thorough outline is it takes a lot of time.  For me it's making my writing process go at a snail's pace.  I'm still far from being done with my first draft.  It's really annoying.  I also start a new job soon so that's going to make the process even slower but thankfully I'm on the last section of my outline then all I need to do is type.  Here's a sneak peak inside my three notebooks.
Another reason my book is taking forever is because I keep changing and adding things.  Taking out cliches, adding more actions/scenarios.  I recently read a manga which gave me a pump of inspiration for one of my characters and I changed how they acted in a few scenes of my book.  This happens often.  This is my debut novel, aren't they supposed to be amazing, gripping, and addictive?  That's what I'm hoping for.  Though it may just end up being boring, badly written, and repetitive.  I hope not!!!  That's my worst fear.  There's people who actually want to read my book which makes me so happy.  I haven't done much promotion or any giveaways and there's already people on Goodreads who are interested.  Every time someone adds my book to their to-read list I feel like crying.  It's surreal.  Real people actually want to read my book.  So weird.  That's why my book needs to be as good as I can make it.  If that means it won't be out for a while so be it. Thanks for reading!
 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on September 15, 2013 17:59
No comments have been added yet.


Lanelle Hall's Blog

Lanelle Hall
Lanelle Hall isn't a Goodreads Author (yet), but they do have a blog, so here are some recent posts imported from their feed.
Follow Lanelle Hall's blog with rss.