I am well into my book writing. I have a few chapters completed. I have a cast of interesting characters, a place where everything happens, and some great plot ideas. I have taken the advice that I have heard from authors like Diana Gabaldon, Betty Webb, Charlaine Harris, Jim Butcher, and Neil Gaiman. I really love that in almost every book signing event, aspiring authors ask about the craft. I often become pen struck and forget all my great questions. Perhaps I should, gasp, write them down. They all write a lot differently, but the one thing they all said was to carve out that time and to write no matter how you are feeling. They all said not to wait for inspiration. Yeah me, I am doing that. Hey I am an analyst, I spend countless hours writing queries to extract data. Believe me, I am not waiting for inspiration to determine how many patients received a certain drug. If I can do that, then I certainly can write something that I actually am excited about.
I have always been competent with grammar and sentence construction. I am not having a problem with that. What I have realized is that I have absolutely no idea how to actually construct a book. What I mean is that from my understanding, books need to have certain elements and arcs and that is where I am entering the unclear path. I read A LOT of books, but lately it has been audio books and maybe the format is less obvious in an audio book. Fortunately, there are many books and workshops to help with book design. I am not letting that stop me from progressing, but I realize that I am going to need to invest some time to get this right. You wouldn't take a job without educating yourself on how to do it, so I guess this is the same thing.
The other thing that has come to my attention is that many people use writing groups to provide and receive feedback. I am realizing that the pretty non-social activity of writing is going to eventually become a social one. I see myself locked in my cave for hours creating my work and it kind of looks like this:
