Writing My First Book Diary. Week 1: Hitting My First Challenges.

by Chris Harris

This is the first of an occasional diary about writing my first book, the writing of the book and then the probably more difficult process of getting it read.

I think it’s fair to say that, for the creation of a book, this process will be unconventional, and I hope interesting.

This, however, is the first of what I plan to be weekly diaries about writing my novel, which I’ll describe in more detail later this week.

Although this entry is titled “Week 1,” in truth I’m about twelve weeks into attempting to write my first book. Still, it feels like Week 1 because it’s the first time I’ve shifted my focus fully from blogging to the book itself.

Paradoxically, it also coincides with me setting up a new blog, A Novice Novelist. I already have a blog covering different subjects, but I felt it important, as a tool and a discipline, to launch a separate space dedicated to this debut novel.

The book itself is made up of twelve novellas, all set in and around the fictional village of Denham in Sussex, where I live, not Denham! Each story spans events from a single day to several decades.

They range from the far fetched to the simple, all circling the quirks of the British psyche. Think of it as a quirkier version of Midsomer Murders, without the murders.

I’ve chosen novellas because I don’t yet feel ready, or equipped, to tackle a full length novel, though I do hope to tie characters and places together. In tandem, I also plan to write a more autobiographical book about my decades in the antiques trade, which is a lot more interesting than it sounds.

This past week I finished the second draft of a still-untitled story about a barbecue. On the surface that sounds dreadfully dull, more like a Facebook update than a novella, but in fact it’s a gathering that becomes the collision point for years of unresolved tensions between two families.

It was, without doubt, the hardest piece I’ve written so far. Writing a story that sweeps across decades is relatively straightforward: you move from A to B with time as your guide. With a barbecue as the focus, barbecues being something I dislike, it’s been a challenge for a novice novelist. Covering a single day, keeping the tension and narrative alive within those hours, proved very difficult with my limited experience.  

I can’t say I enjoyed writing the first draft, although I did enjoy the challenge until I sat down to it. I kept on jumping at the first distraction for relief. But I’m generally good at knuckling down, my almost maniacal trait of finishing any chore even before I start it, an excellent assistance.

Part of the problem was timing: I’m still recuperating from minor surgery, although minor it has meant I haven’t been able to walk for a couple of weeks for the stitches to heal. Normally I walk twice a day, and that’s when stories unravel in my head, when characters link up and plots fall into place.

Without walking, I lost my best creative tool. The result: this story was a slog. The previous five practically flew out of me, while this one fought back. Oh, and being on antibiotics hardly helped.

Another challenge was that, for the first time, I needed absolute solitude. Usually I can write with a little background noise, but not this time.

I ended up retreating to my stepson’s bedroom (he’s at uni) at the back of the house, blissfully quiet, just to concentrate. That, in turn, has led us to start looking at the idea of a modular garden room for the end of the garden as a dedicated writing space.

I’ll wait to see how the books turn out first, mind you.

Despite the frustrations, I really enjoyed working on the second draft. Transforming a fraught, scrappy skeleton of a first attempt into something I’m proud of was deeply satisfying.

I even ran it through AI for review, and it came back with “amazing” — though, predictably, the caveats followed. Still, I’ll mull over the former and consider the latter.

Today, Monday morning, I’ve wasted no time in starting novella number seven, my first consciously comedic piece.

Most of my writing has satirical or comic elements, but this one is intended as genuine light relief after the technical grind of the barbecue story and family dynamics.

Of course, I’ve set up the new blog, A Novice Novelist, to document this whole writing journey.

It’s been a trying week: surgery recovery, a difficult story, and the absence of my thinking walks. But as I start this new phase, it feels like the beginning of something exciting.

I now have six completed novellas, some of which are already edited down into short stories for (hopefully) posting online and entering into competitions once I’ve researched how to do that more.

By the end of this week I’ll be halfway through creating the stories, seven or so more to go, and then the brutal task of editing and knocking them into shape.

#Writing A Book #Content Creation #Novice Novelist #Writing Fiction #Writing for Dummies