A Snipit of My Writing Journey

A Snipit of My Writing Journey

by Cindy R. Williams

I usually have my blog posting ready about a week prior, but this time I'm just getting to it three days out. I prefer to write it, then let it sit, and go back to it with fresh eyes a week later. This is how I work on all my short stories.

Novels are a different story. I finished my novel about a boy, a dragon, magic and choices and sent it out on Christmas day to my editor, the lovely Kerry Blair, no less. That novel took THREE YEARS to write. Mostly because I took a three year college course on Creative Writing and it was my project. I learned tons while writing it. We wrote a scene a week for class.

The cool yet strange thing was that we didn't write chronologically. Instead, we wrote by type of scene; recognition scene, action scene, conflict scene, resolution scene etc. It was a wild ride. We allowed the main character to dictate the story. It was high on character development and low on plotting. I found my character(s) really blossomed writing this way.

Two draw backs to this method for me were: First, when it came time to put the book together and write connecting scenes, I ended out with a bunch of extra scenes. (However, I must admit, I certainly did get to know my characters well.) Second, I had to go back through the entire book and tweak things so that the emotional curve worked as did the many details. I also had to map in foreshadowing.

A big surprise was that the book was over 200,000 words long-- way too long for a first book in a series so I found a natural break about half way through, and cut it in half. I beefed up the action climax scene, and voila, I now have book one complete, and the next book's first draft complete. Two books for the effort of one.

My book will fly home via cyberspace within the next week or so. As I work on edits, I'm also going to begin my research on finding my dream agent. I have four books in this dragon series and two other series started so I finally feel like I have enough in my repertoire to move forward.

Becoming an author is more than a full time job. With a family to raise, Church, Community, School involvement, and the world to save, I write at night. I'm truly an American Night Writer. While I'm working on finding my agent extraordinaire, I'll continue to work on the dilemma of how sleep is supposed to fit in the equation. Life is good as a writer.