I Finished My First Book!

Now what?

I just finished my very first book! There’s a beginning, a middle, and an end—my main guy even has development, if you can believe it. I am bursting with excitement. If only you knew how many works I let sit unfinished, their characters abandoned mid-arc! 

To celebrate, I stuck two no-recipe cookies in the oven. As you can imagine by the name, the cookie comes out different every time. These came out like hockey pucks (note to self: brown sugar in chocolate chip cookies is not optional). It’s a fun little gamble if you like living on the edge, but I am getting off course.

Shades of Night is one of those manuscripts that begins one way and ends another. It took a long while for it to evolve the way it has. I will say, however, that if someone asked me how long it took me to write, I would say one year. Why? That’s how long I took it seriously.

Courtesy of Midjourney

Almost exactly twelve months ago, I swallowed my fear and showed up to a writing critique group. I was nervous, I knew I liked to write but I did not feel like I could say it was a hobby. Everyone there had been doing it for years. They were IT experts, psychology professors, teachers, professional editors, and more. I hit a gold mine in terms of ideological and creative diversity. When I showed the group my story, I realised how weak my writing was. I was told, “this is good, but it needs a lot of work”. 

It was true.

I pulled my MS without allowing them to finish the book. I knew it was a waste of time. The first eighty pages were rife with critiques that began to sound repetitive. I have this issue with academic papers, although less so after many years of school/training: flashes of brilliance that sat like islands in a swamp of mediocrity. 

I did not care. I wanted this book to happen so badly. 

So, I gave myself a year. I wrote almost every day, I listened to my playlists, I edited, and I daydreamed. I plugged chapters into editing software and used Speechify to listen for mistakes. Not an hour went by without thinking about my characters. I often stayed at home to push myself to finish a chapter rather than socialise. I don’t think I watched any television, either. Every free moment was dedicated to this journey.

This time, the reception from my group was overwhelmingly positive—though not without its constructive moments!

So, here I am! It is finished. 

But I think this is the hard part. I learned to write this year. Attending my critique group taught me a lot about story-telling and the art of pen. Now, I have to start from ground zero. I have no clue how to publish a book nor do I know how to pitch to hawk-eyed people living on the bottom line. I feel as though I have to sift through myriads of websites and YouTube videos full of “get-rich-quick” style information. There are too many people who claim to know what they’re doing, for all of them to know what they’re doing.

Where do I start? Competitions? Queries?

I suppose we’ll find out together.

Sincerely,

Maya