The Process I Go Through to Write a Book

Some of you have inquired about the process of writing a book, what steps are involved in it, and how long it takes. Let me share my experience with you.

When I get an idea for a book; the first thing I will do is research the “topic” of the book. Usually that means the type of crime that will be committed in the story. Because of what I learn in my research, it may spark some ideas for the direction the story should take.

I next determine the “secondary” mystery, the personal element that will bring the twins into the story. Usually this involves helping a friend or relative with some problem they have that does not seem to be related to the crime being committed, but of course, we will find out as the story unfolds that the two are related.

Next, I will create a general outline of the story: what are the events that will take place to propel the story forward. Often with this, I will also do a timeline, so that I can keep track of which days things are happening. That way, I can include the regular patterns of the teens’ lives, including school time, church on Sundays, holidays during the time frame, etc.

Once the outline is completed, I will brainstorm a specific event that will begin the action. I am learning to move this “inciting” event—as they call it in writer’s terminology—as close as possible to the beginning of the story. The sooner the action starts, the better.

Now, I begin the actual writing of the first draft. Often, I will have to stop to research incidental items along the way, so that the facts in the story are accurate. The first draft can take up to one year to complete, although I wrote one book that took three and a half years and another one that I completed in one month!

Once the first draft is completed, I set it aside for a while—maybe a few weeks—just to give myself some distance from the story. It’s also the break I give myself as a congratulations for having actually written a book!

After my break, I re-read the story and check for any inconsistencies or missing pieces of the puzzle and make adjustments as needed. I also make some grammar adjustments. I may re-read the story several times in this phase to accomplish all these tasks.

Next, I upload the book into my ProWritingAid software and make a major edit for grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, and all the other wonderful tools this program offers.

Once that is completed, then I do another read-through just to make sure all the edits made sense. Often I find that when I do what’s called “line edits,” I will often miss how a particular sentence fits in the context of the entire story, and therefore might have to make some adjustments for the sake of continuity.

The next step involves what I call a Beta reader. This is someone other than myself who will go through the manuscript and note any story inconsistencies and also any grammar issues that I may not have caught. I consider their suggestions and then line edit the manuscript one more time.

The final step is another read-through to make sure that, again, this line editing has not affected the overall story flow. If I have major corrections on this round, I will read it another time after all those corrections are made. After that, I am ready to say that this is a final manuscript, ready for the publisher.

The entire process—after writing the first draft—can take several months before it is finally ready to go to the publisher. And then that whole process starts!

In the next issue, I will explain the process once the publisher has the book. But, as you can see, this process is long and often tedious. But the end result will be worth it.