How Long Does It Take to Write a Book?

If you are thinking of writing a book, you might be interested in knowing how long it will take. The answer is ... it depends.

J.K Rowling spent three years writing the fifth Harry Potter novel, but Barbara Cartland writes many of her books in about two weeks. My first book took eighteen months to write and my second nine months.

What makes the difference?

First, I am no Barbara Cartland (or J.K.Rowling). Barbara has written over a hundred books. Experience helps.

Second, I rarely get it right first time.

I have written each of my books at least three times over. Each chapter is written, then left for a while so I can get some perspective on it, then I reread it and see if I enjoy my own writing. If I don’t it is in for an extensive rewrite.

 Even when I am happy with the stories, I still have to go back and edit the language and check for mistakes. You need eyes like an eagle hawk to notice you have missed the word “a” in a sentence or used the wrong version of “there, their, or they’re.” It really helps to have someone else look at it too. After you have reread it three or thirty times, it is easy to read what you think you wrote and not what is there.

Third, most writers recommend a schedule, but I prefer to write only when I feel inspired.

If I insist on writing when I am not inspired, then my writing often sounds hollow and maybe even a little sterile. It might read well, but after I have analysed every sentence, I sometimes lose the emotion. Sometimes after hours of work, I regret the changes and go back to a previous version. Some days, I just can’t seem to get it together.

That doesn’t mean I don’t write, just that I write something else, or work on the cover design, or publicity.

Fourth, formatting a book takes time.

I published through CreateSpace and it takes a while to learn how to add page numbers in the right place or the chapter headings where they belong. If you pay for these services it is simpler, but I wanted to save money. It took me months to work it all out.

Fifth, it takes what it takes.

If you have a full-time job, or young children, or just have trouble focussing (like me) then it will take longer. If you are motivated and work all night, then you could get it written in a few days, just like Barbara Cartland.

The question is, … would it be as readable and engaging as one of Barbara Cartland’s books?

My next project might just be a novel so I have been doing some research. Here are a few blogs about writing that I found helpful

1. Ivory Madison’s Time to Write a Novel in a Month. It is an interesting idea and it could work.

2. Write a Novel in 60 days from Life Learning Today is five years old but has some great ideas including a link to Randy Ingermanson’s great Snowflake Method for setting up a novel. It starts with outlining the plot and characters and then moves on to the main body of the book.

So, how long does it take to write a book?

The best answer is that it takes as long as it takes. Writing a book could take just a few days. Writing a good book could take years. Unless you are Barbara Cartland of course.  According to Wikipedia she wrote 23 novels in 1983.

No matter how long it takes, it is well worth it. It is so satisfying to hold your own book in your hand.

When you write your book, I would love to hear about it.

Two Crucial things to consider before you Write your Book.

I learned so much from writing my book. Here is some more advice I hope you will find useful. It might even save you time and money, if you can get it right from the start.

Before you start writing a book or even a short story, you have decisions to make. You will need to decide on:

1. The Tense (timeline) of your story and
2. The Perspective of your story

The Tense

You can write a story as if it happened yesterday, years ago, or even as if it is happening right now.

What you cannot do (unless you are stupendously clever) is write from more than one angle at a time or change the time frames willy nilly. These mistakes can make an otherwise good story go bad. They disrupt the flow and leave the reader confused.

When I first submitted my book, I thought I would write it as if it was happening now. I thought I was brilliant. It seemed immediate, interesting, and more exciting that way.

Then I came across some problems.

A chapter might start with me talking about two adorable Burmese cats eating upmarket whitebait as if it was happening right now, and then talk about something that happened the next day or a week before. My script was full of segues like “a few days later” or worse, “sometime earlier when I was ….”

Luckily I had an editor to look it over. I knew it was a problem, but I had not realised it would eclipse almost everything else. My book was not worth reading while the tenses were all wrong.

It is crucial to choose a time frame early. Either it is told as if written as it happens, or it is told in the past tense. Even futuristic stories must be written in one of these ways.

Stories written in the past allow more flexibility than stories that are written as if they are happening now. It takes a skilled writer to move to recollections of past events or focus on future activities when a story is supposed to be happening now.

I chose to rewrite everything in my book, except the introduction, in the past tense and to sort out the stories based on similar themes pets, homes, travel etc. Now it has story chapters and other sections full of helpful advice for those who are interested in house sitting.

Writing in the past is often easier.

The Perspective

Writing allows you to be the God of your own little story world. You can write from inside your main characters head, or from several characters perspectives at once, or even as an omnipotent being who sees everything that every character thinks and does.

My book is written about my adventures as a house sitter, so the decision was easy. It is from my perspective.

If you are writing a novel, you might not want to write from the perspective of only one character. This means you can only speculate what someone else is thinking and always from the framework of your character. It is probably easier, and is certainly more flexible, to write as if you are outside the story and can see everything.

It is also possible to write from the point of view of several characters, and change in each chapter.

These are decisions that are probably best made before you put pen to paper. If you have already written something, check that you have been consistent in both tense and perspective.

You will want your reader to concentrate on the story. Your reader should always know exactly where and when they are. That way they can relax and enjoy the story you have worked so hard to tell.

They don’t seem like exciting subjects, but both tense and perspective can make a huge difference to the tone and the quality of your book.

Happy writing.

Three Simple Steps to Getting Started on your First Book

I learned a lot from publishing my first book.

I learned that you can’t do too much editing. Two versions of the same paragraph on page 132 taught me that. (Fixed now of course)

I learned that writing it is only half the battle. Marketing is tough. There are 800,000 Kindle books, how will anyone find mine?

I learned patience and humility and perseverance. I also learned about planning a book.

If you have a book you want to write, here are some suggestions that will help you keep everything in order.

1. Decide a structure

Writing a book is not always a linear process. The first page is not always written first. Some authors start with the end and work towards it.

Early in the book writing process you too will need to decide whether you are going to start at the beginning and stay true to a time line, or whether you will be more creative. Many of the best books include flashbacks or glimpses into the future.

These can be very effective to create curiosity in the reader or as a change of pace, but they need careful handling so the reader knows exactly where they are and does not get confused.

A non-fiction book like mine is just as tricky. It doesn’t necessarily have an obvious start and finish. I started with a lot of stories and worked around them.

At first, I assumed my book would be in chronological order. Then I realised that the reader might find that confusing. I would be jumping backwards and forwards from one topic to another. I decided to set it up by topic. This would allow readers choose which chapters they wanted to read first, and keep most of the tips and information together for easy reference.

This also worked for me because some house sits were just not as newsworthy as others. The house sit with the slobbery dog only made a few paragraphs, but the run down flat with dodgy appliances, pop out window, and a disappearing student, was much more memorable.

2. Set up an Easy System

I had a folder full of writing and needed to make it into a readable book. Whether you are starting from the beginning or already have a lot of the writing done, here is an easy way to keep everything in order.

1. Set up a folder in your computer for your book files. I have a folder in my Documents file called ‘My Writing’ and inside that there is a folder for each book as well as files for articles, blog posts, and another called ‘writing tips’.
2. Set up a Word document with the list of the chapters that you want to include.
3. Set up other Word documents in the same file; one for each chapter. If you already have some writing done, put all the relevant files in the same folder.

You can now write in whichever chapter you feel like. Any stray stories or information you want to include can have their own Word file or be kept together on one extra page. Because you have the chapters in separate files you can work on any chapter you like and later move them around as you please.  

When you are almost finished each chapter, you can then copy it to one main Word document in the order you want it to go, and start working on continuity.

If you know how to set up a table of contents, give each new chapter you add a heading and format it as Heading 1. Give topics or stories you might move, their own heading and format them as Heading 2.

Keep updating the table of contents so you can see the order at a glance. It doesn’t matter if some of these headings are not going to be chapters in the final book. You can combine them into something more logical later. Having a table of contents makes it so much easier to find stories and topics and move them around.

You can print off the table of contents every now and again and play with the order. It is a good way to decide whether the order makes sense and whether a story might fit better somewhere else.

3. Keep Your Outtakes.

I found myself with a lot of extra written information that didn’t quite fit my book, but I didn’t want to toss it either. An easy way to keep these together is to use OneNote if you have it.

Open up a new OneNote file and save each piece of writing you remove onto a new page with a suitable heading. When you are done, the tabs on the side of the OneNote folder will be labelled with the headings and remind you where everything is. You can choose which ones you can revisit and maybe copy them back in later if you wish.

Setting up s system like this can help you keep everything in order. It can also make it seem less intimidating, by breaking it down into more manageable chunks.

If you have any ambition to write a book, set up your folders and make a start. Even if the folders are empty it will give you a place to start when you have time. Good luck.

 

Fame as A Writer, an Author, a Perpetual Tourist.

I had my first “celebrity” experience the other day. 

David Castillo Dominici

I was responding to an event invitation and offered to give them one of my books for the door raffle. The response was heartening. “Oh wow” he said, “a real live author coming to our event. Can you sign it please?”

I never expected that.

It made me think about thirty years ago, when my first son was born. I thought he was perfection. I expected everyone to notice and bow down before his glory. (Well maybe not that low) but I was besotted and surprised that everyone else wasn’t under his spell.

But babies are born every day. People get used to it. They admire the newest ones and move on. There is not a lot of glory in being a mother.

I thought having a new book would be the same, only with less sleepless nights and fewer messy nappies.

I expected responses like: A new book? My cousin has a new book. When did you publish it? How big was it? Did it take you long?

Instead I got admiration, and a whole new level of credibility.

I have an invitation to show up at this event in my new role as an author, (what do authors wear?) to speak to people as if I know something (I do, but don’t we all) and to be noticed. (I am not sure I want that)

I don’t know how the event will go, but there is one thing I already love about having a book published.

I can now add a new category to my occupation list.

Every time I travel between New Zealand and Australia, I have to fill in one of those little immigration forms. Sometimes I write that I am a house sitter. Sometime is say I am a writer. Many times I am tempted to write ‘perpetual tourist’ or “wanderer and wonderer.”

Now I can also write ‘author’ if I want to. I hope it impresses the customs staff.

New book proves it - I know the proper English.

My book proofs were delivered this morning!

I was so excited.

I was holding a real, live, shiny, paperback copy of my own book that I wrote all by myself.

Then I read it.

I have read it at least three times right through on my computer, and I thought there might be a slim chance I had missed one or two errors.

There were about a hundred. I was so deflated.

About ninety of the errors were missing, or misplaced, commas. I thought I spoke, and wrote, the really, very, excellent, English. I found out I need, to use, more, commas, and, other punctuation; although, maybe, not all, in the same sentence.

Another fifty errors, were poor tense use; things like, “soon, I saw a huge, hairy, wallaby-like rabbit.” (But I got plenty of comma’s in there, didn’t I?)

Then there were awkward or unclear sentences. For example, what was the “it” in the sentence, “I ran 'it' down the back of the pony from a safe distance?” I need to clear that up.

A few were more serious.

On page ten, I wrote that after my manager received a complaint from my internet stalker, “I interviewed me several times.” No I didn’t. Why did I say that?

I also stayed in a house on a “hill will exotic views.” That is just gibberish.

Then there is the paragraph I caught and corrected. The problem was that I left the wrong version in with the new one. Both are still in the book. Aaaargh.

Luckily, there is time to change it before the paperback goes on sale. Unluckily, some people have already bought the e-book version. If you are one of those people, please contact me and I will be very happy to send you the corrected book.

And, ..... thanks everyone for your support. It means a lot that you have purchased my work. I did work hard on it and I continue to do so.

For those of you waiting for the paperback version, my apologies. I should be ready to unleash it on the world in the next two or three weeks. Woohoo.

Free Kindle e-books

Since you are reading this then I can confidently make two assumptions. You enjoy reading, and you have computer.

That is all you need to download thousands of free electronic books (e-books) from Amazon.com. I know because I just found them.

Instead of writing, right now I could be reading everything there is to know about cheese, or learning all about fur farming, or diving into the “Bed Book of Happiness.”

Oh really? I can hear you saying. Happiness? Fur farming? Sure, and so many other subjects. Perhaps there will be something there for you.

Then there are the fiction books. As far as I can tell, most of the free fiction books are poor quality, but if you are patient enough to scroll through, you might find a real gem.

So how will you find them? There are several ways.

1.       In the Amazon search box just put “Kindle free books” without the quote marks and if you like, you can add “top 100.”

2.       Head back to Amazon and where it says “all departments”, choose the Kindle Store. Then in the next box, write “books” or a subject you want to read about. In the drop down box on the right, choose to sort by “price- low to high.”

Using either of these methods, you could also choose to search only books with a four star or higher rating by clicking on the stars under “average customer review”. That should weed out some of the poor quality ones.

So what might be worth a look? Well, classics and other books written centuries ago that have no more royalty obligations are often free and worth reading again. I downloaded “Tom Sawyer” and “Wuthering Heights”.  

You can also download free e-books about where to find good free e-books. You can join an e-book blog or follow a Facebook site such as free e-book of the day.

The good news is that there are plenty of free books. The bad news is that there are plenty of useless titles in there as well as far too many erotic books. It would pay to read the reviews before you start filling up your new kindle reader with lots of books you might not enjoy. The saying “You get what you pay for” is certainly true here.

"Housesitting in Australia" is out on Kindle. So, why Kindle?

Until a few weeks ago, I didn’t know much about Kindle. Now I am a kindle author and my Kindle book is for sale.  

I love “real” books. I love to feel them in my hands, to smell the fresh new paper smell and turn the pages. I love colourful rows on my bookshelf and curling up in the sun with a book in one hand and a snack in the other.

However, I have become a convert. I have downloaded several excellent books using Kindle and read them avidly on my computer. If you know all about Kindle, then maybe this post is not for you. If not, maybe I can persuade you to consider this new option.

What is Kindle and How to get it for Free?

Kindle is the name of a small electronic device dedicated to reading books. I don’t have one and I probably never will, but that doesn’t stop me downloading books to read.

Amazon.com supplies a simple and free reader that downloads in seconds. There are versions for the computer, i-pad, blackberry and almost any type of widescreen phone.  You can get one on the Amazon Free Kindle Reader download page. 

Why bother?

• Generally, electronic books (e-books) are much cheaper, maybe a quarter to a third of the price of the paperback book. You also do not have to pay for postage. 
• You can store thousands of books and they don’t take up any physical space. They are easy to carry around on your laptop or reading device. (A huge benefit for a roving house sitter like me)
• There are over 800,000 kindle books on Amazon. What a huge variety. There are technical books that sell for over $10,000 and a long list of books that are free. There is sure to be something that interests you.
• When you decide to buy, you can be reading your book within a minute. Once you download the reader from Amazon, all purchases know exactly where to go and are on your chosen reading device within seconds.

I think you might find that handy.

Have fun

p.s. In my next post, I will tell you how to find free books on Amazon.

Just Weeks to Go

The manuscript is back from the reviewer and there is some work for me to do but I am very happy. The reviewer said my book was original and fun, and that I have an engaging writing style.
Soon you will be able to judge for yourself. I expect to get the kindle version out before christmas and the paperback version out soon after.
I have added a little more to the sample on this website.
I can't wait to hear what you think.