My Drafting Process

So, did I mention that I finished my first draft of Prince of Blades?

Let's celebrate again....

Okay, got that out of my system. Moving on...

This was the first time for me actually writing a full novel from start to finish, and my drafting process changed as I plodded along. I found a way of writing that really works for me, keeps me productive, and ensures that I never get stuck along the way. I wanted to share my process with you in this post.

NOTE: This is just MY way of doing things. Every writer is different and this isn't going to work for everybody, but it works for me. Take my words with a pinch of salt, I am not Author God, but if you have found yourself stuck in your own drafting process, or you're simply reluctant to start because writing a book feels waaaay too daunting - then try my way and just see how it goes.

NOTE 2: I am an outliner. It's the way I do things, and my method is very structured. For all you pantsers out there, this may not be the best method for you, but feel free to tweak away and try and make it work.

I've got the sand!

It's been quite the while since I last blogged. I could come up with all kinds of excuses, but truth is there isn't one. I've been neglectful.

In all honestly, I didn't blog because their wasn't much in the way of updates going on. The final semester of university was pretty full-on. I was so up to my eyeballs in essays and scripts that there was just no time to work on my own creative projects. I have finished now until September when it aaaallll begins again, and I've finally had chance to crack on with my writing.

So I guess the biggest news to share is....

I finally finished the first draft of Prince of Blades !!!

On showing up and getting shit done...

So...it's been a hot minute since I last put up a post on this blog, and A LOT has happened since I last wrote anything on here. I've been meaning to come back for a while, but I just haven't had the time.

I want to start MAKING time.

Let's start by talking about what I've been up to recently. The big new thing is I finally started my English and Creative Writing degree and so far I am really enjoying it. This first year has been mainly focused on introducing us to different aspects of creative writing (poetry, fiction and drama). For the 'English' side of the degree we have been studying all sorts of texts from poetry to Jane Eyre (which I LOVE btw). Overall the course has been brilliant so far and I can't believe that I'm almost done with my first year!

When it comes to writing my novel - things have been turbulent. I brainstormed, researched and outlined the book last August-October, and began writing the first draft in November for NaNoWriMo 2017 (more on that later). I won Nano (yay me), and continued to work on the book afterwards. I am currently around halfway through the first draft and sat on 70K words. One thing is FO SHO - this book is already waaaaay too long. Don't worry, I'm aware. There are already huge chunks that I've written and I know I'm going to edit them massively - maybe even cut them entirely. BUT I don't want to go back and edit a single thing until I finish the first draft. I'm a perfectionist, and if I'm constantly looking back I will never move forward - so push forward I must!

CHAAAAAAARGE!

Building a Character Profile

For me, character profiles are essential. You can think of the people you want to tell your story about, give them names....but they aren't believable unless you really figure out who they are.

No one person has a single facet. So we have a life-saving, award-winning surgeon...who also works as a volunteer at the puppy shelter (aaaaaaw) Or we have the life-saving, award-winning surgeon who kidnaps and murders women in his free time (oooookaaaaaay). Just adding that one other attribute to the same character completely changes who they are, it gives them another dimension than what we first see on the surface....be that good or bad.

Once we start adding lots of these different sides to our characters, they become 'real' people. They have motivations, fears, quirks etc - they aren't just made from a cookie cutter mould, each person on the page is unique to your story.

So how do I do this?

Some writers prefer to just get to know their characters as they write, which is great - but I need something more to work with before I start. Then, when I start writing, I feel like I truly know who my characters are, and how they would believably react in given situations....as well as getting to know more about them as I write.

Brainstorming and Research

So I'm FINALLY done with the first stage in my novelling process - the brainstorming and research.

I feel like I know enough about my world, characters and plot now so I can jump into my story, start fleshing out the plot and working on my outline - the part I've been looking forward to and dreading in equal portions - but we can talk about that another time.

Overall, I spent roughly a month brainstorming and researching for The Prince of Blades. This was a brand new idea to me. When I first thought of it - I knew next to nothing, so I had ALOT of work to do before I was convinced that this was a story I could really work with.

I know that some writers do very little brainstorming and researching when they first begin their novel. They prefer to discover things as they go, and that's great. But I'm a planner - and I can't move from one step to another without feeling secure in what I have done so far. So I brainstormed up a whizz, and I researched my little butt off - and I got WAY excited about this book and everything that I came up with along the way.

A Bit About My Book....

Okay, so this is the thing. I'm very reluctant to share too much about my story right at this stage. It's a very new idea, and at the moment I'm just poking at it to see what happens. This may sound silly, but I'm protective over my story just now, so I won't be sharing too many details for a while yet.

So what can I tell you?

The book is a YA potential trilogy about an all female crew of very badass pirates. This group of amazing kickass women literally walked into my brain and I just knew that I had to write about them. I barely knew them at first. I didn't know their names, their personalities. I didn't know what world they lived in or what they were doing. But I was determined to find out.

Introductions

So hi everyone :)

I've been meaning to set this blog up for a while now, but haven't had a literal minute to sit down and do it. Now, finally, I've got it up and running so I thought I would introduce myself.

My name is Lauren, I'm (at the time of writing this) 26 years old and I live in rainy North England with my 3-year-old daughter Sophia and our two cats Hamilton and Angelica (any Hamilton the Musical fans in here? WHAT TIME IS IT? SHOWTIME!!)

I've always wanted to be a writer, I've always wrote bits here and there and dream of becoming a professional author for a living. I have had tons of ideas, and apart from a few false starts, I've never really written anything of much substance - academic work aside of course.

So finally, this year I've decided to do just that. It's time to put the pedal to the metal and finally crack on with this dream I have. A book isn't going to write itself right?