The Making Of, Part 1: Time Keeps On Ticking

A reasonable facsimile of the making of "Pray"

I started "Pray" in January of 2006.  The version that Hellgate Press read and agreed to publish was ultimately completed at the end of 2009, just shy of 4 years after it was started.  And "Pray" wasn't even the first book I wrote.

No, that distinction goes to a novel I started in late 2002.  The current, "final" version of that wasn't completed until, oh, the summer of 2009.

A year ago, I started writing a YA (young adult) book.  I recently handed the first draft to my in-house editor (more on that later).

The obvious thread among these little snippets is that a book takes a long time to write.  While my novel didn't get to the point where it was "finished" until 2009, the initial first draft -- the one I was willing to let people read -- took roughly a year to write.  In fact, the initial first draft of "Pray" took a year to write...just like the initial first draft of my YA book.

Apparently, one year is my time frame for completing a solid first draft, which is actually pretty impressive, given that I have a day job.  It's considerably less impressive when I factor in all the revisions I end up doing, which results in something like, oh nearly 7 years going by before I'm comfortable with my novel.  It is interesting to note that the copy of my YA book that I gave to my in-house editor has already undergone some substantial revision, perhaps more so than any other book I've given to her, which is a result of how much less time it took to write the initial draft.

Not at all what my editor is like.

Now, there are a number of reasons for this.  Obviously, I'm getting better and the whole "writing a really long book" thing.  And a YA a book that features monsters and magic and teen romance?  Well, that's right in my wheel house (it also offers fewer opportunities to be horribly self-indulgent, which is one of my biggest flaws as a writer...and as a person, really).  So it make sense that writing my YA book was a smoother process.

But I think the main factor was the fact that I'm older.

On one hand, I could chalk it up to realizing that my dream of writing for a living is starting to fade away with every candle I add to my birthday cake.  On the other hand, I think that, as we get older, we tend to put things into perspective.  I know the things that are important to me and I waste less time on the things that aren't.

Honestly, I think that's a byproduct of writing "Pray."  I think it's a byproduct of learning how my grandparents lived their lives.  I'm still distracted by all the various and sundry gadgets and flashing lights of the modern world, but at the end of the day I feel far more focused than I was, say, ten years ago.

This new found maturity is also a result of the influence of my in-house editor, Nicole, who is also known as my wife.  I could point to a lot of ways in which Nicole and I work well together -- some of which are actually in "Pray" -- but on a purely symbolic level (and I'm a sucker for symbolism), it's hard to beat the fact that she's an editor and I'm a writer.

Much closer to what my editor is like.

Granted, Nicole doesn't edit books, she edits those fancy moving pictures all the kids are talking about.  But editing is editing, particularly when it comes to story.  She knows what is needed and what is fluff.  She knows what works and what doesn't.  The fact that she reads a lot helps a great deal, too.  Oh, and she's absolutely not afraid to tell me if something is awful, even if it hurts my delicate writer ego.

It should come as no surprise that the first book I ever wrote was written before I met Nicole and, in turn, took the longest to get right.

All of this has me wondering: how long will it take me to write my next book?  You know, it would probably take substantially less time if I didn't have a day job...