The Journey to Happiness - Writer Style

Call me crazy, but I enjoy editing my work.

Book one of my Juliet Harrison series was a monster, though. It's first draft is nothing like what is published. It was also what I sent to agents. I regret that, because in the back of my mind, I always felt the book could be better.

My father-in-law Rick and I spent hours upon hours going through book one - cutting out large chunks of exposition, rewriting scenes between characters. The original version was 282 pages. We knocked it down twenty. But I still wasn't happy with it.

So I printed out the whole book , spread it out on my floor, and on my hands and knees, I went through it again with a pen and the urge to 'x'out large portions. And I did. I removed twenty more pages, dropping the total to 232. While I succeeded in making the book a faster read, I hadn't gotten rid of that feeling that the book could be better.

Almost to the end of that second draft's editing, I came to a relatively easy decision to make. I would throw the whole thing out and start over.

I wrote the final version of book one in 34 days. I've never written a book in so short a time. It helped knowing where this one was going, but I had different goals in mind. I wanted to develop the characters. I wanted to better explore their interactions, and I wanted them to be human. They had to get frustrated, angry, happy, scared, and sad.

I had to make this book perfect, to smooth out all plot-holes, check for grammar mistakes, misspellings, and I needed to allow each scene to be given its proper time in the spotlight.

I may have missed a few typos in the ebook version, but I've never been more proud of 'These Chains that Bind'. I'm happy with it, happier than I've ever been. I'm satisfied that I created a realistic world with characters you would see in your own lives. Finally - finally - I'm proud of this book.

The journey to its completion has taken two years, countless editings, and hours upon hours upon hours of self-induced stress. But I can live with that, because this book wouldn't be what it is without ALL of that. It's stronger for the trials I went through. And I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

http://www.amazon.com/These-Chains-Juliet-Harrison-ebook/dp/B006V57YKW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1327771030&sr=8-1

If you like the book, please leave a review.

Look for me on twitter: kt_swartz
And for my author page on Facebook: KT Swartz

Beginner

Self-publishing my book is the only way I got published. I don't know why. I compared my sentence structure with that of bestsellers. I read dozens of books on how to write and how the successful authors acheived their dreams.

And after a few attempts at submitting my work to agents, I began to wonder if maybe I didn't know as much as I thought I did about writing. Maybe the quality of my work wasn't good enough. That theme of 'not good enough' ran ruts through my brain. It forced me to take a good hard look at book one of my Juliet Harrison series; I edited it and cut pages out of it; I smoothed over plotholes and moved scenes around. But while I made it a faster read, I realized I'd only cut out its heart and left behind all the parts I didn't like.

With no other path before me, I decided to scrap the whole book and start over. These Chains that Bind went through not a revision but a complete rewrite, with only 20-30 pages culled from its first drafts. Now, I am proud of my manuscript. Its heart is beating stronger than it was.

I'm thinking about submitting it to agents again, but right now Amazon Kindle is treating me rather well.

http://www.amazon.com/These-Chains-Juliet-Harrison-ebook/dp/B006V57YKW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1327261041&sr=8-1