The Writing Journal 📝

Last week, I had written that I will journal as I go deeper into the editing of Book 2 of my second novel Spark & Spice. A lot of you asked me to post it here. So, here I am... with the book editing journal for More Spark Extra Spice (I will soon make a landing page for Book 2).

So, in the last seven days, I started working on it seriously and finished almost one-sixth of it. For the ease sake, I have divided the story in 3 parts - The beginning, middle and the end. So, I've finished more than half of first part and hopefully finish the first part this week.

When I write the story for the first time, I am a natural over-writer. I write and write what comes to my mind. Initially posted as a long form of serialized fiction on blog or wattpad, I need to repeat things a lot so that the readers don't forget what happened in the last few chapters and how the protagonists landed in a particular situation. But it is not needed in a novel, which is more or less, concise. So a lot of deletions need to be made while writing a novel. Currently, I am at the developmental editing stage, where I need to make sure whether the story makes sense despite all the editing and the deletions.

Ideally, the following are my stages of writing and editing a story before it gets published:

1. First Draft (When I write and post a story online, I usually post the first draft)
2. Second draft - When it is to be made into a book, this stage ensures there is a sensible story to tell, after all 🙂
3. Third Draft - Developmental Editing - This step includes deletions, rewriting, rephrasing things which don't make sense, removing repetitions, deleting entire chapters which sound dragging or which don't find a place in the final draft.
   Since I write a lot, the book will go up to 1000 pages if I publish every chapter, every scene. The price goes up too. And I feel both are unnecessary. I am trying to keep the pages around 450-500 pages or maybe lesser, if I can. This stage is the most daunting for all writers. It is so much work, I keep pushing it for later.
4. Fourth stage - to check if finally everything is making sense and there are no loopholes left.
5. Fifth - To reread dialogues, line-by-line editing for spelling mistakes, typo errors, grammatical mistakes
6. Sixth - At this stage, I give the draft to Beta readers, family and friends, whom I trust to give valuable, honest opinion to me.
7. Seventh - If I need to make changes after feedback, or improve clarity at some points.
8. Eighth - Right before giving it to the publisher - I try to read again
9. Ninth - After the publisher designs the internal design of the book, some words get merged since the transition from MS Word to PDF file makes these errors. So, they send it to me to check if there are errors.
10. Tenth - Just before publishing 😭

If you noticed, I wrote 'Stage' and not 'draft' after Fourth. It's because with each stage, I may have to read the draft 3-4 times.

Since I am deleting a couple of chapters, I am arranging them in a separate folder "Deleted Chapters - Spark & Spice 2" - They were once posted on the blog but unfortunately, some of them don't belong in the final book. Don't worry, though. Once Book 2 is released, I will publish those chapters here under a separate section, so that old readers don't miss any scene they might have liked before 😊

Coming to the writing tip of the day, for all the aspiring writers, who connect with me:
Read a lot. Read different genres, newspaper, fiction, non-fiction, blogs... keep reading. And then, keep writing. When you fall in love with the art of writing, you will get better at it only by consistent practice.

I love writing fiction, as you all know by now. Let me know if you write too, and what is it that you love to write the most. Also, what is it that motivates you to write something. I would love to hear from you.

Ciao for now. I wish you an amazing week ahead.

Lots of love 💓

M.

PS: You can write to me by commenting here/ or, use the contact form to reach my mailbox/ or, DM me on Instagram - dr.manita.v