One Author's Journey #4

 

 

 

 

 

Book III was going through the last stages before its release date when I came upon a writing challenge on the internet. It was called the “National Novel Writing Challenge”. I clicked on the link and read about it and was floored when I discovered the challenge was to write a book with 50,000 words or more in one month. The month was November.

NOVEMBER, the words stuck out like a knife. That is the month we have family over for Thanksgiving, there are at least two craft/book shows, and I spend days cooking and preparing the house for a lot of company. How on earth could I commit to doing something like this?

I don’t know why, but I did it. I had never self-published and thought this would be a good exercise in writing discipline. I would learn how to juggle life with my writing. Up to this point, I let my life revolve around marketing and writing. This was a test and only a test…or so I thought.

In Luke’s Legacy, Book III of the Nan’s Heritage Series, there was a “walk on character” who had a lot of personality. Sheriff Roy Miller met her on a train. She was a mail order bride. The man who ordered her sent her away and didn’t marry her. I decided to write her story for the November NaNoWriMo challenge.

The Eyes of a Stranger addressed some of my fears of being rejected. Gertie, the main character had faced rejection all of her life and she didn’t understand why until she left home only to be rejected once more. I contemplated the thought process of a mail order bride. She was the precursor to the email bride of today. One day I was visiting with my sister and we were talking about mail order brides. I told her that I would be in the ‘return’ file on my way back home.

When she was introduced in Book III, we find that the good Sheriff had a friend in Denver. Gertie was to go and find him to secure employment as a nanny or housekeeper. I began the story with her life at home and how she came to be a mail order bride. Then she had conversation with Sheriff Roy and built the story from what was laid out there.

What was Roy’s friend like? Would he help her? Where would she live? Where would she work? Those days were difficult for a woman on her own. There were few women in the workplace. Most were married off very young. Gertie was past her prime marriage years. She feared she would be an old maid. Those were the things that tossed around in my mind in this book.

It was fun to write this on the challenge. NaNoWriMo urges the writer to only write and not correct or edit as they go. That gave freedom to throw caution to the wind. Editing and processing the story came in December, January and on. I was very pleased to meet the challenge that year. My readers were happy to have two new books within one year to read. I learned a lot about moving with the storyline and letting the story run. It was delightful.

It did seem that I was writing all the time, but I still had a great time doing all the scheduled things. I think that book taught me how to live my life as a writer and not let the books boss me around. It would seem to be the opposite, but it wasn’t. I learned that if I write an average of 1670 words a day, I can get the rough draft completed in a month. I also learned that it is not necessary to get a rough draft completed in a month. It is alright if it takes two or three months. I learned that I must not forget to connect with those I love and meet new people. After it was all said and done, I had a new title, The Eyes of a Stranger. This book was not originally in the plan of the series, but after I wrote it, I knew it was an important element of it. The next move was to wrap up the series with one more book.