It’s been quite some time since I last gave an update on my editing process. Back in October I was up to 197 hours worth of effort in writing and editing my fourth novel, Troll Life. This week I hit a major milestone when I finally sent copies to my review team for their critiques … More Time to write. (How long does it take to write a novel? Pt 5)
It’s been a while since I posted about the editing of my new novel as I’ve been a little bit busy with other stuff. More to follow on that in another blog soon. In my last blog on how long it was taking to write Troll Life, I was up to 158 hours. I’ve had … More Time to write. (How long does it take to write a novel? Pt 4)
In my previous blogs I have tried to outline how long it is taking me to write my latest novel. I’d got up to the second read through of the first draft and that had taken me 140 hours. Synopsis and character profiles – 10 hours Plot outline – 30 hours Write first draft – … More Time to write. (How long does it take to write a novel Pt.3)
As discussed in my previous blog, I’d been dipping in and out of the idea of writing Troll Life for about a year or so and did some work on a synopsis and character profiles in the summer of 2016. I don’t know how long I spent on it in total but I’m going to … More Time to write. (How long does it take to write a novel Pt.2)
We’ve discussed the disasters I’ve had and the improvements I made to my book covers but now I’ve decided to change again. ‘Why?’ you may ask. There are a number of reasons, some that I outlined in my previous blog but the driving force was that I wanted a consistent theme across all my book … More Judge a book by its cover. (Part three). The rebrand.
As well as trying to amuse and educate you with my etiquette blogs, I do have other writing priorities such as writing novels. My ‘proper job’ if you like. Novel number three should be out in early July and I’ve been slaving away on number four recently. Today marked one of the major milestones in … More First draft, how to set a word count target and stick to it.
Some years ago I wrote about the editing process for Leg It and how I expected to edit Idle Threats. Now that I have finished my third novel, Counterbalance, it is probably time to revisit the process and see if anything has changed. As always, this is how I chose to do it. It isn’t … More Did I make the cut? My guide to editing.
There are as many writing routines as there are writers. Some lock themselves away from the world until their book is done, slowly going mad, then come out blinking into the sunlight with 200,000 words of rambling nonsense. Others will balance children, pets, spouses and a day job whilst jotting down a few hundred words … More Word counts, naps and blood transfusions. (How to get your book written.)
In part two of my review of how the approach to writing my three novels differs, I will be looking at plotting and planning. Plotting and Planning I approached the writing of Leg It in the same way a drunk approaches a kebab shop. I ended up with the equivalent of a Bolognese Pizza, a … More Plotting to be a planner.
Alan Parkinson 