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Writing a Novel

Timeline of Writing

By Just A GirlPublished 6 years ago 3 min read
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Writing a novel is NOT easy. Trust me, I know that. Now I have been writing books since I was thirteen. At the time, I was twenty when I self-published my first book. Some people, probably most people, have been writing for well much longer than I have before they published their first book and honestly, the timeline does not matter. Don't even think about a timeline. Unless you are being published by a traditional publishing house. Then you have to. But if you are self-publishing, take whatever time you need but do NOT procrastinate.

So the first book that I self-published is called Heaven In Hell. It sold over 500 copies which is great for my first time. I soon will be publishing my next book called Hate. Coming this summer.

Anyways, I had started this book in January of 2017. I had maybe three chapters. All three had between 1,200 and 1,500 words in each chapter. My goal was to have 50,000 words by the end of the book. I had stopped writing come end of April. Why? I have two reasons. The first reason is that the beginning of March I found out I was pregnant! So now I was worried about being a single mother because the father was a complete deadbeat. I had to quit my job because they wrote me up every day because they don't like their employees being pregnant apparently. But then came April 28th (Reason number two), I started dating an ex-boyfriend, and we agreed we wanted to settle down finally. (I'm still with him to this day.) I forgot about the book for a while and he consumed all of my time. I saw him nearly every day. We went on a vacation. It was fun. I wanted to live as a teenager one last time before I had a child.

So the end of August comes and he takes a job offer. This job was great for him. He was a project manager. He was so happy about it. But two problems. It was all the way in Texas and he would be gone for six months. So he leaves and goes down there. I'm due November 4th. I lost all friends because all they wanted to do was party. I couldn't. So I stayed home and came across my novel once again and started writing again. When I started writing, I had SOOOO many ideas coming to mind. I was writing like crazy! Nobody could stop me. I wrote for 15 hours a day because I couldn't sleep since I was sick towards the end of my pregnancy.

So then my boyfriend (now fiancé) called me and we both decided it was time for him to come home because I was having so many pregnancy complications and they were talking about inducing me. So he was only down there for three weeks.

Guess what? In the three weeks he was down there... I finished my novel. Thirty-eight chapters. I wrote thirty-five chapters in three weeks! 50,400 words! I was surprised.

So he came home. I left my book. I ended up having my son three weeks early. October 16th! Then I was put on bed rest for two weeks. So I went back through my book an edited it and published it in November 2017.

So it took me eleven months to write a book. Please guys, if you are writing a novel, take the time you need. If you do that, your book will come out better than you thought it would. I know a long time is frustrating, but it's better to have a GREAT book than a good book.

But you have to also make sure you force yourself to write sometimes. Not when you want to. Do it as if it was your job. That's the only way you're going to get anywhere in your book.

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About the Creator

Just A Girl

A 24-Year-Old Self-Published author, a mother, and a college student.

Loves to write and read fiction... (Especially Romance

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