Tuesday, June 18, 2024

Yet another update to my book writing project.

So when it comes to my book project, it can finally be said that the book is more or less finished now. After spending two years working on it, the script was good enough to be sent to the publishers to evaluate whether it's good enough.

Project-wise, in reality it took way more work and effort than I had thought at first. I would never have thought that I'd have to do four full rewrites (3 months each) of the manuscript before the mistakes - big or small - in the story would be fixed.

Indeed, once I got my third rewrite of the script complete, I genuinely thought that it was ready to be sent to the publishers. I thought that I had finally noticed all the problems and that pretty much everything finally worked from start to finish. 

In reality, though, once I started working on the fifth draft, I found that there were still problems. For the first time I saw that the pacing in the first chapter (35 pages total) was a bit off so I had to cut two small scenes that weren't needed and that slowed down the story.

Fortunately, once I got to the second chapter where the protagonist leaves Paris and the story gets going in Southern France, there weren't that many issues to worry about. I didn't have to cut scenes, which was an issue that I had already taken care of in earlier drafts. 

Indeed, the next six or so chapters (2-7) were relatively simple to rewrite. Even though I had to make some small cuts here and there in order to make the story flow as well as possible, I didn't have any critical problems or issues here. 

However, once we finally reached the last two chapters, that's when things got a bit tough again. Chapters eight and nine were the ones where the characters take part in a dangerous train operation where nazis transport art to Paris. 

In this case, once I felt that the motivation for the protagonists to take part in the operation was a bit off exposition-wise, I had to fix that. Especially when it came to pages with critical exposition in it, that took more than a week to rewrite before it had a solid enough flow. 

Fortunately (again), once I got this second critical moment in the story fixed (the catalyst in the first chapter being the other one), the rest wasn't that difficult. Even though the last two chapters took a lot of effort too, it was only a matter of putting in the hard work.

In that sense, once I got the fourth rewrite finished a week or so ago, I thought that it was finally time to send the script to the publishers. I thought that I had managed to make it good enough and that I shouldn't go for another round of rewrite. 

After all, when you think about the story as a whole, even though there are probably still some tiny things that need to be fixed, as a whole it was time to take the next step. At some point I would have to send the manuscript it for an evaluation anyway.

In that sense, now that I've finally sent the book to the publishers, I hope that things go well here. I hope that good things happen, because even though it's not easy to get published, at least in my opinion the book that I wrote is more than good enough for that. 

Monday, February 5, 2024

Update to my book writing project & other things.

So when it comes to things that have been happening lately, it can be said that over the last four months or so, I've been busy with my projects (book & piano). Even though I haven't been updating this blog, I've still been working hard on them. 

Book-wise, the last time I updated this blog - roughly 100 days ago - that was when I thought I was more or less finished with the project. I thought it was ready to be sent to the publishers and that there wouldn't be that much polishing to be done anymore.

In reality though, once I took another look at the manuscript after I got the third draft done, it didn't take long before I noticed that there was still things left to be fixed. Me having worked on the project for like eighteen months or so still wasn't enough.

Story-wise and structure-wise, there haven't really been any real problems with the overall story. The story in general - there are nine chapters in the book - has been pretty solid ever since I managed to get the first draft finished a year ago. 

Rewriting-wise, the real challenge has been with trying to make the reading experience as smooth and as entertaining as possible. Even though I have a good story, smaller things like details, exposition and descriptions take a lot of work and effort to get right.

Indeed, as I kept working on the fourth draft, I tried so hard to make sure that every page in the book would work. I tried to make sure that every sentence would finally be good enough and that there wouldn't be anything in the script that didn't feel right anymore.

Piano-wise (my other ongoing project), it can be said that I've also been very active with getting better at playing the instrument. I've played every day, which has not only been therapeutical but has also helped tremendously to get in the mood to write (I always play piano first). 

Song-wise, the last four months or so I've been practicing the theme from 'Oppenheimer'. The piece 'Can you hear the music' has helped me to learn things like musical scales, arpeggios, correct finger positions and playing really fast (like super fast). 

Not surprisingly, it has taken a huge amount of practice to be able to play the song properly, but since I've been super patient, I've gotten a lot better in the process. Currently I can play the piece almost as well as professional pianists do.

So based on these things, when it comes to my projects as a whole, I think it can be said that things look pretty good at the moment. Pretty much everything looks good (I've done my very best), even though it hasn't always been easy to keep things going on. 

After all, especially when you consider that my primary job has been rather demanding lately (working with violent kids, having had some staffing issues), that's been an issue too. I haven't always had that much energy to get excited about things in my life.

Still, now that my next step in the writing project is to send the book to the publishers, I think I should be at least somewhat proud of myself. I've done my best with the project and hopefully the book is good enough to be published at some point.