I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I’ve finished the zero draft* of my book. There’s still a lot of work to do, but the worst is over. I think of this early complete draft as being like a pencil sketch for a painting. Now, I know what the story is from beginning to end. Now, I get to rework it and, hopefully, make it better. This is the bit I like best.
*I thought I got this term from Scott Westerfeld, but after a quick Google, I think maybe it was Justine Larbalestier** who came up with it. Anyway she describes it very well here.
** I’ve just read Justine’s YA book Liar, which is fabulous.
That’s great, I hope everything goes well with it, you must be feeling very pleased I am sure 🙂
I really want to become a Author, Do have any tips that I could use while I am writing my novel called Flooding Dream? It is about a 12 year old named Joey and she lives in the Outback on her parents dusty farm with and Emu and Kangaroo and dog, She has a dream that her best friend drowns in a flood and then one day on the news NT is flooding! ( her best friend lives there) I dont know what I should do next! I have planned it out but it doesn’t seem right for the story! Please help me
adele,
You just have to write it. As you write it, you will probably get other ideas. No one says writing a book is easy. It takes me a year to write a book. A lot of that time is spent rewriting and trying to make the story work. You just have to keep at it.
I have some writers tips on my FAQs page.
http://www.carolewilkinson.com.au/faqs/#faq9