The journey so far

Current Book has had quite a journey. Not a triumphant, brass-band-accompanied march to the finish line. More of a haphazard, weaving, stumbling progress, like a drunk person trying to find his house-keys in the dark. I started it as a Nano project in 2008, and I am STILL writing the darned thing. Also, I anticipate working on it for the next three months. It is in its third incarnation now, and completely different from its original self (and a lot better, thank goodness), and is undergoing another round of plastic surgery.

Anyway. Current Book - THIS IS YOUR LIFE.

November 2008

Wrote the first 50,000 words as part of Nanowrimo, but didn't continue on to finish a first draft - big mistake! Also, I can't believe that I started this book (in the first of its many incarnations) two years ago.

December 2008

Abandoned book (when I should have carried on writing it) to concentrate on polishing and submitting The Cry of the Go-Away Bird.

January 2009

Worked on the book on and off while sending out queries - it was during the Month of Many Rejection Letters, though, and my confidence was shaky, so I used all kinds of displacement activities to keep from working on something new.

February 2009

Re-wrote The Cry of the Go-Away Bird, pretty much from scratch, based on agent feedback (and abandoned the poor old New Book again).

March - April 2009

Still rewriting! I think I made a couple of feeble attempts to keep going with the new project, but was so immersed in reworking TCOTGAB (not a good acronym) that I just couldn't.

May 2009

Finished the rewrites on TCOTGAB, sent off the book and signed with my lovely agent. Touched the new book not at all. I see a trend.

June 2009

Signed a publishing contract. Went back to the new book for the first time in months (properly, that is), and found that it was full of holes and smelling a bit off, like a damp sponge left in a cupboard. Started work on it again, hoping to finish a first draft pretty swiftly.

July - August 2009

Was overseas. Abandoned the book again, mostly, because we were travelling around so much.

September 2009

Plunged back in. The book proved sulky and difficult to win over again, because I had been so erratic with my time and attention. I don't blame it. I ploughed on with the first draft, which still wasn't finished ...

October 2009

... and finished it.

OR SO I THOUGHT.

How wrong I was. Foolish child! So innocent! So naive!

November 2009

Took time off to gain perspective and work on a new project for Nanowrimo.

December 2009 - January 2010

Realised the first draft was bollocks and that halfway through I had taken a very wrong turn, plot-wise. Deleted about 75,000 words, never to be seen again (at least, not in the order in which I wrote them). Started rewriting and revising.

March 2010

Semi-abandoned the book AGAIN. Good grief. Will I ever learn? This month I was working through the edits on TCOTGAB (seriously have to do something about this acronym) for my editor, and working at a publishing company as well. I did keep going with the rewrites, but in a desultory manner.

April 2010

First half spent on rewrites - second half spent in Austin for our reconnaissance trip while the book rotted in a corner.

May 2010

Back in the publishing office! And more rewrites. Finished another draft, printed the whole thing out and read it. Realised that the structure still wasn't right. Got a scrapbook, cut the pages up with scissors and pasted them in scene by scene to create the new shape.

June 2010

Reworked the draft to reflect the new, improved, scrapbooked version. Also completed copy-edits on the typeset proofs of TCOTGAB.

July 2010

Our last month in New Zealand! Continued to rework the draft ...

August 2010

.... and continued to continue. I achieved exeedingly little at the start of this month, though, because we were in the throes of moving from New Zealand to the US. When we arrived in Austin, I finished up the draft and sent it off to my agent in a desperate search for perspective and a Voice of Reason. She came back to me with a lot of comments and some very sound advice.

September 2010

Started revising the novel from scratch AGAIN. There was a hysterical edge to my laughter at this point. But the feedback from my agent and the new perspective I had gained meant that I had a much, much clearer, more detached view of exactly what needed to be done and how to do it.

October 2010

Rewriting!

What limping, lurching, two-steps-forward-and-one-step-back progress I made. Am making. This, however, is exactly the same pattern I followed with The Cry of the Go-Away Bird: first draft, dramatically different second draft, dramatically different (in a different way, just to confuse everyone) third draft, fourth and final draft ... and then editing. My first book took me about two and a half years to complete as well. In a funny way, seeing the timeline laid out like this makes me feel a bit better. I am making progress, no matter how halting that progress is.