30th May, 2023, was fixed in my head for a while. It was date the paperback and ebook versions of my first novel, Dreams, was released. The hardback came out in December, 2022, and with the release of these two new formats, the book has a chance of reaching a wider audience.
But the publication date of Dreams wasn't the only thing going through my mind - for as the weeks ticked by, I was also working on my second novel, White Nile. When the hardback of Dreams was released, White Nile was little more than a concept, with only a few pages of text in existence. However, little by little, more text was added, and the current word count stands at around 77k. The book is another thriller, and with about 3 major chapters left to write, the first draft word count should be in the 85-90k bracket. Once complete, the process of editing and polishing will begin. The story charts the tale of Captain James Hillsdon, a British Iraq War veteran who saw active service in the spring and summer of 2003. Scarred by horrors of war, Hillsdon embarks on a solo trip up the course of the Nile to come to terms with what he witnessed in battle. But on the banks of the White Nile, in Khartoum, Sudan, he makes a discovery that will change his life - and world affairs - forever. Caught in the act, he's hauled to the American embassy, where the details of what he's found are laid bare by the American charge d'affaires, and their consequences by the director of the FBI. But while Hillsdon protests his innocence, he's hiding a secret that could influence the way the Americans treat him. And it's a BIG secret! White Nile will be ready soon.
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So what's it like for a debut novelist when publication day arrives?
Answer: totally ordinary! That's right - the long awaited day of publication passes pretty much like any other. There's no great change in status, no magical moment of enlightenment; all that happens is the 'pre-order' links on book sellers' websites lose their "pre" to become 'order' links. It's actually the stuff that happens BEFORE publication that brings home the imminent reality of it all. It's something of a slow burn, beginning way back with the publisher's email telling you they want to publish your story. From that point on, it's a case of waiting, wondering what the jacket will look like, or how the proof pages will appear. And then, ever so slowly, things start to get more and more real. The various line edits, copy edits and so on start to arrive; when that process is complete, the proof pages come, showing what the typeface will look like and how many pages long the book will be. This is the moment that things start to feel genuine. Later down the line, you get a glimpse of the book's jacket (I was delighted with how mine looked), which gives you a tangible idea of what the book will look like when it's on the shelf. Next come the various pre-order links. For me, these came in dribs and drabs, with Waterstones being the first retailer to offer Dreams for pre-order. This was the crazy moment when people could actually part with their money - and a few people did just that! As publication day (Dec 6th, 2022) drew closer, one of the last things to happen was the arrival of the complimentary copies - five in total - which I, as author, could use for marketing the book. This was when it REALLY felt real, to feel the book in my hand and rifle through its pages. Yes, I admit it - I immediately read it from cover to cover, despite having read the manuscript enough times to practically know it by heart! Thus, by the time Dec 6th finally came around, most of the magic had pretty much happened. The day itself came and went without fanfare, but at last, I could call myself a published author! But when those orders began to be delivered, reality struck home like a hammer blow. Would people like it? What if they felt they'd wasted their money? The dream of being published had been realised and the book I'd poured my heart and soul into for so long was finally landing on people's coffee tables. But what would the reaction be? Well, so far the reaction has been positive, but it's early days, and I will have to wait for the general verdict. Until then, I'll stay crippled with doubts that were non-existent before publication day came about. And while I wait for that verdict to emerge, I'll continue working on my next book, White Nile, which I intend to complete at some point in 2023. Dreams is currently available in hardback, with paperback, e-book and audiobook versions due to come out later in 2023. If only writing time was plentiful. With an abundance of time, one could make serious progress quickly. Sadly, for me and many other authors, there is a dearth of usable writing time. For those of us with full time 'day jobs', six or eight hours a day spent writing is a mere pipe dream. After work, I'm far too exhausted to do anything meaningful. Other people have the added burden of family responsibilities, which must, of course, take priority.
Yet writing a book is hard. Really hard. The first draft takes an age to compile and then there's the near-endless process of polishing. Once done, several redrafts will be necessary, each of which requires further polishing and near-continual reading and re-reading to make sure everything's all right. This is difficult to achieve when your writing time is reduced to weekends and, in my case, school holidays (I'm teacher by the way, not a pupil!). Writing a novel is all-consuming. It dominates your thoughts as you seek to make as much progress as possible in every writing session. The ideas and plot lines fizz in your head and you yearn to get them down on paper. Your journey to the end of the story is remorseless. One might even call it an obsession. Thus, interruptions to the writing process are far from welcome. So imagine what it's like working on TWO books at once. Why would someone do that, you ask? Answer: you receive the substantive edit of a novel you've already completed and that's waiting for publication. In my case, I am thousands of words into my second novel, White Nile, and am hoping to make substantial progress on the manuscript this summer. However, my first novel, Dreams, is currently going through various necessary steps before publication. These include the usual editorial procedures. These editorial processes are absolutely vital, and there are several different types of edit that get conducted before a book goes to print. Good professional edits are worth their weight in gold, and the one I recently received for Dreams was excellent. It, did, however, mean a lot of additional work! Largely, this involved reframing several sections and making sure the story was still how I wanted it after the editorial cuts. Naturally, many reads through of the entire manuscript are required at this point, with various tweaks needed here and there to take account of the edit. It's a huge amount of work and, with limited time, there isn't much chance to do anything else. The days fly by at a canter. So what about poor old White Nile? Well, it's going to have to wait, I'm afraid. It'll still be there when Dreams is done and dusted; it'll just take a few more weeks to complete, that's all. But when you're talking timescales a year and more to write a book, each day is precious as progress is frustratingly slow. But that's okay - the most important book is always the one that's coming out next. We authors need to 'flick the switch'. By that, I mean we need to be prepared to immediately stop work on the project we're totally immersed in and restart work on a book we've already finished when the edited manuscript comes through. It's a hard thing to do, but it's a mindset we have to have. It also means you can't be too precious and possessive when it comes to your writing, which is probably the hardest thing of all! And so I'm brought to my final point. Never mind two books; authors often have THREE books on the go at once: 1) the book they're writing 2) the book they're editing before publication 3) the book that's already out there and that they are actively promoting. Some crazy souls may even be working on four if they are researching a future one too. That would be a stretch to far for me, though! It's a tall order - a blank page stares at you, and 80,000+ words need to be done before you can claim to have written a novel. And those darn words don't write themselves either!
Patience is the key, I find. It's not like you can bash off a book in a couple of wet weekends. Writing is a slow process; progress is steady as opposed to swift. Finding a regular writing slot is useful in that regard. It can be before or after work; even during your lunch slot (which is how JK Rowling started out). Coffee is a useful ally as well! For me, my job is far too busy and exhausting to allow much writing on work days. As an assistant headteacher, I find myself arriving at my desk by about 7.30am, then working at breakneck pace until about 5.30pm. Outside of teaching lessons and having scheduled meetings, most of those ten hours are devoted to firefighting whatever has kicked off during the day. Then, when I go home, my 'real' work begins: that is to say, getting ahead with the various things I've been tasked with. Sometimes that can be a couple of hours in the evening (so a 12 hour working day in total); other times it can be as much as 8 hours in the evening. It's absolutely draining, and hardly conducive to the creative writing process As you can probably tell, writing during the working week just isn't an option for me. This reduces me to weekends and school holidays. I mention this to underscore my point about the regularity of writing. The start-stop nature of weekends-only not only slows things down, but also makes for a poorer process. Your mind fizzes with ideas when you write, but when next weekend comes around you've forgotten them all, and have to kick-start things all over. Progress on the manuscript can feel like it's stagnating. Holidays are a different beast entirely. I can use my mornings (say 8am to 11am) to make some real headway, and it's amazing how much progress one can make in a week. I try to write about 1000 words day when working on a fresh chapter. Sometimes things don't go too well (this morning was especially arduous!), but other times you can surprise yourself with two or even three thousand words in a single sitting. I write one chapter at a time, and then go back to refine things before moving on. By 'refine', I do not mean 'polish'. Polishing comes much later, once the first draft has been completed. At this early stage, it's more about making sure things hang together and that what you've written reads back relatively well. As soon as it does (and it might take a good few days to ensure a three-thousand-word chapter earns a pass), I move onto the next one. So that's my process, and I continue in that vein until I have a book. Or a first draft of a book, at least. And that's when the fun really begins, as I shall explain in another blog post. Being a full time writer would make things so much faster! So now it's your turn - how you go about your writing process? Please feel free to comment :) So how did Dreams come about? A germ of an idea came to me when I was about 23. Don't ask me how; the 'whys' and 'wherefores' are lost in the mists of time. I remember using my summer holiday at the end of my first year of teaching to begin the writing process. The outcome was terrible. Embarrassingly terrible!
When I was about 27 or 28, I returned to the concept and made a much more serious attempt to write the novel that still lurked inside me. I got about 40,000 words in before abandoning the project in favour of doing a Masters degree. On graduating, I never retuned to the book. Until lockdown, that is. When Covid came, I knew it was 'now or never.' With a protracted period of time on my hands, I returned to the manuscript, knowing I could do a few hours' work each day for several months on end. In March 2020, I began with a re-read of the 40,000 words I had in the bank. Only about 5,000 were salvageable. And thus began the long process of constructing a novel almost from scratch. Seasons came and went, but by September, I had a first draft I was happy with. Two friends read the draft and offered their feedback, and I enlisted a professional editor for her advice too. She tore it to shreds, and was right to do so. But her pointed advice was exactly what I needed, and prompted a near-total re-write of the first draft into what was eventually to become the final version - about nine months after the first draft had been finished! Polishing a manuscript is a long old process!! But finally, it was finished, and there I was in June 2021 with a completed manuscript - but no way of publishing it. I sent it off to various agents and publishers, hoping (but never expecting) to be picked off the slush pile. Then, one day, came a reply from Arrow Gate Books. After the initial salutations and courtesies came the line I'd long been waiting for: 'we are interested in publishing it...' It wasn't in the bag at that stage, but many weeks later, and after numerous email exchanges, I was officially on their list. I signed my author contract in March 2022, and Dreams is currently in production with the publisher. Release is scheduled for summer 2022, and I can't wait to share my book with the world. :):) |
AuthorC. D. Fox is a novelist and educator from Oxford. You can keep on top of his latest announcements and thoughts here. Archives
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