How I Wrote The Fall of Notsfe
Big Idea/Concept
My main idea/concept for The Fall of Notsfe was the Fabric. Parallel worlds separated by a traversable void! I wanted it to star a princess of one of these worlds who finds out she is heir to the other kingdom and how she learns to use the Fabric and struggles with responsibilities. I wanted her to meet a vengeful friend disguised as a stranger, who would cause problems for the kingdoms.
A Beginning and an End
I don't want to spoil anything from my book, but I can tell you the ending was planned, though the plan did change! All you need is point A (the beginning, where it starts who your characters are what role they play) and Point B (the end, the result, what do these characters get to at the end? Where is their end spot? Happily ever after? What sacrifices did they make?), and an up bow to connect them. By that, I mean the mountain shape. You don't need to know all the details, just a general concept of how your characters will be affected, how they'll react.
Rough Draft (NaNoWriMo!)
Ah yes, the rough draft. I used NaNoWriMo's Young Writer's Program to track progress on my rough draft, and I HIGHLY recommend it!! If you're struggling to start or keep going or write consistently, NaNoWriMo is just what you need!!
When I wrote, one of the things that kept me motivated was telling myself, "This is the first draft. I can write whatever, do my best, or get through the scene if I have to. Editing can come later; right now, I just need to write it all out." And It's true, editing is where you...edit, not the first draft! You don't need to edit in the first draft, and honestly, I don't recommend it.
When you're writing the rough draft, you want to follow your plan, but you don't have to follow it through in every aspect. Things change. As you get to know your characters a little more, you might realize that a different character would better suit a reaction you were expecting for another character; maybe they have more motive. Let your draft be fluid. Let it flow; however it feels natural. You can change your plan, tweak it to match your new ideas. Don't be afraid of walking off the path of your initial plan. Just because you weren't expecting one thing in writing doesn't mean it can't end up something completely different!
My initial end goal was a lot different than how it ended up! I planned for one thing, but as I got to know my characters and learn how they are, learn what motivated them, how they react to certain situations, how they are in general, the plot had to change. The plan no longer fit, and different roles fit different characters.
Editing
EDITING. I don't want to discourage anyone from writing a book, so please understand that editing is worth the suffering. EDITING SUCKS. It takes forever, drains you completely, and will try to unmotivate you. At this point, my best advice is DON'T GIVE UP. YOU'VE GOTTEN SO FAR. You might've been telling yourself the entire time you wrote the first draft that the first draft is the most difficult, and while again, I don't' want to discourage you, the first draft is not the hard part. Editing is the hardest part. I thought it would take me at most two months to edit. I thought I could do a chapter a day or a chapter every other day. I was very wrong, though it could've been because I procrastinated a lot.
Editing consists of reading through and making corrections, highlighting sections that don't make sense or you despise (for cringe reasons), rewriting some, running it through spelling and grammar checks, writing-in scenes you didn't feel like writing, adding in missing pieces, taking away unnecessary bits, and everything in between.
I can't wait to edit this. 😖
Proof Reading
Proof copies! This part was the second most fun! I formatted and uploaded my book to a book self-publishing/printing company (I used lulu.com), my mom and I worked on designing the title, and we printed about 12 copies! I asked if anyone wanted to proofread on my Instagram story and in my crew in school, and I got three responses from school! I sent them the books, and they read up and sent me notes! A few family friends and friends outside of school also proofread, and an English teacher I had a few years ago! When they were done reading and writing in edits, they either sent me pictures of the corrections with the pages or gave me their copies (I still need to return them!!) to fill in my master copy on a google doc.
Once that was all done, I wrote my author's note, polished how the book will look (my mom did the graphics and formatted everything! Thanks, mom!!), and then it was done! I published my book with Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing, and I've done it! I can't believe it still.
P.S. This isn't sponsored by anything mentioned above!
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