Book

July 2019 – One Friday evening I had an inspiration to create and decided to prove to myself that I could write. I opened the laptop and started the story that I carried in my head for a few years. I wrote just over 2,000 words in one sitting and was very happy with the result. I did not take this creation seriously, however, and abandoned it for a while.

May 2020 – I had been thinking about this book idea for almost a year, but given how daunting and impossible this task looked, I made no progress. I almost gave up after my first try. However, one Saturday I felt the urge to dust off my word file and see whether I can continue the story. To my surprise, I could, and even finished the first chapter. I couldn’t believe I had done something so grand, so ended up scaring myself again and putting it aside.

July 2020 – I could not stop thinking about my book. The desire to let the story out kept burning within me, so I decided, I must continue. I took the task more seriously and read a lot of information online about writing and story telling. I continued sporadically, without any particular schedule or goal in mind.

August 2020 – I set myself a goal to have no zero days, and even try to achieve a thousand words a day. I managed to finish two more chapters (making it three in total) and realised that there was no turning back. I had to keep myself accountable and I could no longer contain the excitement within me, so I set on a new task of creating a website for my writing endevours.

September 2020 – I launched this website along with my blog and Twitter account. My book was no longer my little secret, instead I have told the internet and with that everyone I know about this undertaking through my social media. And I received overwhelming support. It was slightly embarrassing to share this dream of mine with the world, but I got a hundred encouraging messages and best wishes. I now feel responsible for my promise to deliver and must keep going. So far I have completed five chapters.

October 2020 – The work on the book is going full steam ahead, with two more chapters completed, so, seven in total. I have also maintained the blog on this website, however didn’t get far with my Twitter account. But that’s ok, as much as I want to tell the world about my book, I must concentrate on writing it first.

January 2021 – For three months, life and work took priority and I was not able to work on my book or blog. However, once everything settled down a bit and I was in the right mindset again, I got back to writing. I started with my blog first, with a post in late January, extremely grateful for everyone who hung around.

February 2021 – I resumed working on my book, and, boy, did I miss it! Unfortunately, the month of February was still busy at work, and I didn’t make as much progress as I hoped.

March 2021 – A massive milestone achieved – 50,000 words! That means half the book is written. I am aiming for around 100,000 words, as this is how big high fantasy novels usually are. This is only the first draft, of course, and the work on the book is not nearly half done, but this is a big achievement nonetheless. I have also completed two more chapters, bringing me to the total of nine.

April 2021 – I started the month with a lot of enthusiasm, efficiently writing Chapter 10 in one week. However, after that life priorities took over and I haven’t touched my manuscript until June.

June 2021 – Published another blog post and have written most of Chapter 11 of my book, but got slightly sidetracked and the narrative went to a direction I wasn’t quite happy with.

November 2021 – After a few months devoted to caring for a newborn I have returned to writing. I have fixed the ending of Chapter 11 and completed it. Started Chapter 12.

December 2021 – I have resumed my blog and bought myself a tiny laptop to be able to work on my book more easily.

January 2022 – I have researched more about writing a novel and realised my chapters might be too long; 6600 words on average when recommended is 2000-4000. It would be really hard to edit my manuscript to fit the industry standard but I am afraid it’s necessary. Ideally I could break each chapter into two, but that would have to be done later, during editing. For now, I’ve completed Chapter 12, deliberately making it only 3400 words long.