The 10 Stages of Writing a Book, by Georgie Tennant
You might have noticed that I recently posted into the ACW Facebook Group that I have signed a contract with Kevin Mayhew, for them to publish my first devotional, “The God Who Sees You,” sometime this Spring. Grateful thanks to all who celebrated with me so generous-heartedly. Every comment meant so much.
For my More than Writers post this month, I thought I might take a (slightly humorous) look at the 10 stages of writing a book, hoping that, those ahead in the journey might console me that they are normal, and those a few steps behind, might take solace from my experiences, and draw strength from them, for their own writing-publishing journey.
1. The Irrepressible Idea
This is the very beginning of the process – the little spark in the night / shower / random conversation (delete as applicable) that won’t go away. It has you reaching for a notepad at 3a.m, jotting down random words, in the hope they will make sense in the morning. For me, this idea came in Lockdown, when I was feeling alone and unseen and I read the story of Hagar and made some notes in my journal.
2. The Beta-Reader Bravery
Here is where you might type up a bit of your idea, as a blog post, article, chapter or journal entry and pluck up the courage to send it to someone. In my case, it was the encouraging pastor of my church, who enabled this – he sent my first two Hagar pieces to all of our church members, to give them something to read and be encouraged by, in the loneliness of lockdown.
3. The Gradual Growth
This is where the seed of the idea begins to be fleshed out into something more detailed, more concrete. For me, a good reception of my first two pieces encouraged me to write three more – this time on David. Then lockdown eased, life got busy and the idea lay dormant.
4. The Casual Conversation
This is the bit where we acknowledge the clichéd but true acronym – TEAM: Together Everyone Achieves More. The ACW is pure gold in this respect. Local groups and writers’ days are places to mine gems of advice and ideas, but also to make connections with wonderful people who will cheerlead, encourage and nudge in the right direction. Mine came in the form of the wonderful Amy Robinson, at my local ACW group garden party, where I told her of my idea and she got me motivated, right away, to shape it a bit more and send it in the direction of Kevin Mayhew. I am so grateful for her support, guidance and championing with this.
5. The Interminable Interlude
This is the bit where you wait, press the refresh button on your email an infinite number of times and doubt, daily, whether anything will ever come of this. Probably for several months as the slow wheels of publishing houses grind into motion. Mine looked exactly like this, for several months.
6. The Enviable Email and the Nerve-Wracking Zoom Call (sorry alliteration failed me for this one)
This is the bit where the email finally arrives and it is good news. After reading it seventeen times, it finally hits you – they want your book! Then comes an agreed date to meet to discuss your proposal and terror strikes – what if I say the wrong thing, what if they change their mind? And many further fears.
They did want “The God Who Sees,” and they were very nice at the meeting. I closed the laptop at the end of the call with a time frame, an editor and a lot of work ahead of me.
7. The Depths of Self-Doubt
This is where you suddenly feel that you can never write anything, ever again. I am aware that my approach was different to others. Many approach publishers with a full manuscript: mine was simply an idea and some examples. 5/30ths of the book had been written with 25/30ths still to go. I sat in front of my laptop, ready to write the 6th devotional entry and was paralysed by self doubt. What if the Hagar/David entries were the LAST thing I would ever write in the world? What if I had NOTHING more to say, EVER? Again, the power of community to the rescue – honest feelings expressed, pep talks given, I powered on and cleared this hurdle with a new piece of writing at last.
8. The Motoring Middle
This is where you feel as if you have plenty of time still to go before the deadline and ideas are coming thick and fast. You are setting time aside to write and it feels like it is going swimmingly. Enjoy this stage with every fibre of your being and utilize the momentum it gives. It doesn’t last. I was going strong up until about half way, then confidence waned again and word count flagged.
9. The “This Will Never End,” Exhaustion
This is where you are around half way through and you begin to feel completely sick of your own idea and become convinced others will hate it too. Again, the only remedies are to seek support and reassurance from those ahead on the journey, and just keep putting yourself in front of the laptop and laboriously typing. You can always edit later and what you produce during this stage is probably better than you think it is anyway.
10. The Near-Conclusion Confidence
This is when you can finally see the end in sight, the light at the end of the tunnel, the rest from your labour approaching. Something a little like the motoring middle kicks back in and you power through to the end, hardly daring to believe it is about to arrive. Note – you may have written the end weeks ago and you’re finishing the middle bit, but you get the general idea. At last, you press save on the final draft. Then notice you spelt Abednego 3 different ways, edit and press save again. You take twelve photos of the final version winging its way to your editor and breathe an exhausted sigh of relief.
And of course, that is only the start.
The 10 stages of awaiting publication is a terrifying post for another day!
Georgie Tennant is a secondary school English teacher in a Norfolk Comprehensive. She is married, with two sons, aged 14 and 12 who keep her exceptionally busy. She writes for the ACW ‘Christian Writer’ magazine occasionally, and is a contributor to the ACW-Published ‘New Life: Reflections for Lent,’ and ‘Merry Christmas, Everyone.' She has written 8 books in a phonics series, published by BookLife and is a freelance writer for King's Lynn Magazine. She writes the ‘Thought for the Week’ for the local newspaper from time to time and also muses about life and loss on her blog: www.somepoemsbygeorgie.blogspot.co.uk. Her first devotional book, "The God Who Sees You," will be published by Kevin Mayhew this year.
For my More than Writers post this month, I thought I might take a (slightly humorous) look at the 10 stages of writing a book, hoping that, those ahead in the journey might console me that they are normal, and those a few steps behind, might take solace from my experiences, and draw strength from them, for their own writing-publishing journey.
1. The Irrepressible Idea
This is the very beginning of the process – the little spark in the night / shower / random conversation (delete as applicable) that won’t go away. It has you reaching for a notepad at 3a.m, jotting down random words, in the hope they will make sense in the morning. For me, this idea came in Lockdown, when I was feeling alone and unseen and I read the story of Hagar and made some notes in my journal.
Here is where you might type up a bit of your idea, as a blog post, article, chapter or journal entry and pluck up the courage to send it to someone. In my case, it was the encouraging pastor of my church, who enabled this – he sent my first two Hagar pieces to all of our church members, to give them something to read and be encouraged by, in the loneliness of lockdown.
3. The Gradual Growth
This is where the seed of the idea begins to be fleshed out into something more detailed, more concrete. For me, a good reception of my first two pieces encouraged me to write three more – this time on David. Then lockdown eased, life got busy and the idea lay dormant.
4. The Casual Conversation
This is the bit where we acknowledge the clichéd but true acronym – TEAM: Together Everyone Achieves More. The ACW is pure gold in this respect. Local groups and writers’ days are places to mine gems of advice and ideas, but also to make connections with wonderful people who will cheerlead, encourage and nudge in the right direction. Mine came in the form of the wonderful Amy Robinson, at my local ACW group garden party, where I told her of my idea and she got me motivated, right away, to shape it a bit more and send it in the direction of Kevin Mayhew. I am so grateful for her support, guidance and championing with this.
5. The Interminable Interlude
This is the bit where you wait, press the refresh button on your email an infinite number of times and doubt, daily, whether anything will ever come of this. Probably for several months as the slow wheels of publishing houses grind into motion. Mine looked exactly like this, for several months.
6. The Enviable Email and the Nerve-Wracking Zoom Call (sorry alliteration failed me for this one)
This is the bit where the email finally arrives and it is good news. After reading it seventeen times, it finally hits you – they want your book! Then comes an agreed date to meet to discuss your proposal and terror strikes – what if I say the wrong thing, what if they change their mind? And many further fears.
They did want “The God Who Sees,” and they were very nice at the meeting. I closed the laptop at the end of the call with a time frame, an editor and a lot of work ahead of me.
7. The Depths of Self-Doubt
This is where you suddenly feel that you can never write anything, ever again. I am aware that my approach was different to others. Many approach publishers with a full manuscript: mine was simply an idea and some examples. 5/30ths of the book had been written with 25/30ths still to go. I sat in front of my laptop, ready to write the 6th devotional entry and was paralysed by self doubt. What if the Hagar/David entries were the LAST thing I would ever write in the world? What if I had NOTHING more to say, EVER? Again, the power of community to the rescue – honest feelings expressed, pep talks given, I powered on and cleared this hurdle with a new piece of writing at last.
8. The Motoring Middle
This is where you feel as if you have plenty of time still to go before the deadline and ideas are coming thick and fast. You are setting time aside to write and it feels like it is going swimmingly. Enjoy this stage with every fibre of your being and utilize the momentum it gives. It doesn’t last. I was going strong up until about half way, then confidence waned again and word count flagged.
9. The “This Will Never End,” Exhaustion
This is where you are around half way through and you begin to feel completely sick of your own idea and become convinced others will hate it too. Again, the only remedies are to seek support and reassurance from those ahead on the journey, and just keep putting yourself in front of the laptop and laboriously typing. You can always edit later and what you produce during this stage is probably better than you think it is anyway.
10. The Near-Conclusion Confidence
This is when you can finally see the end in sight, the light at the end of the tunnel, the rest from your labour approaching. Something a little like the motoring middle kicks back in and you power through to the end, hardly daring to believe it is about to arrive. Note – you may have written the end weeks ago and you’re finishing the middle bit, but you get the general idea. At last, you press save on the final draft. Then notice you spelt Abednego 3 different ways, edit and press save again. You take twelve photos of the final version winging its way to your editor and breathe an exhausted sigh of relief.
And of course, that is only the start.
The 10 stages of awaiting publication is a terrifying post for another day!
Georgie Tennant is a secondary school English teacher in a Norfolk Comprehensive. She is married, with two sons, aged 14 and 12 who keep her exceptionally busy. She writes for the ACW ‘Christian Writer’ magazine occasionally, and is a contributor to the ACW-Published ‘New Life: Reflections for Lent,’ and ‘Merry Christmas, Everyone.' She has written 8 books in a phonics series, published by BookLife and is a freelance writer for King's Lynn Magazine. She writes the ‘Thought for the Week’ for the local newspaper from time to time and also muses about life and loss on her blog: www.somepoemsbygeorgie.blogspot.co.uk. Her first devotional book, "The God Who Sees You," will be published by Kevin Mayhew this year.
Congratulations- not just on getting it published but making it though all these undulating stages.
ReplyDeleteFabulous Georgie! Many of these stages seem the same as doing my MA. That rollercoaster of inspiration, hard work, and self-doubt.
ReplyDelete'After reading it seventeen times'. Yes, exactly that! The 'can this be real?' moment!
ReplyDeleteI recognise so much of this! Pushing the refresh button a million times, chugging along brilliantly then running out of writing fuel - thanks for your honesty and helping us to realise it's not just us!
ReplyDeleteHa! Fab post Georgie! Love the alliteration. I can relate to all of them but especially Nos 5-7. You were very restrained only looking at that email 17 times!
ReplyDeleteTerrific - all so true. May I suggest the Enviable Email and the Excruciating Electronic Call?
ReplyDeleteLovely post with so much shared frustration, self-doubts and indescribable joy. May you repeat the procedure at least 20 more times!
ReplyDeleteLovely post, Georgie! You said it all. I resonate with the self doubts sybndrome. Is there ever a cure or remedy for that? Blessings.
ReplyDeleteHi Georgie & well done! What a marathon. One question - what level of detail did you have to send in all those emails to publishers & Kevin Mayhew? Just the idea or a bit more flesh on the bones?
ReplyDelete