To be honest, I didn’t begin writing with the intent to create a longer than average novel. I simply did what it took to complete the story. It’s that simple. After several rounds of feedback from professional beta readers and editors, I actually cut out and condensed quite a bit of the original draft.
My first novel, Three Worlds Collide, is about 136,000 words or 417 pages in Word. My second novel, Low Men, is about 125,000 words or 456 pages in Word. The second has more pages because I did a different format with more chapters.
Anyway, the first novel, Three Worlds Collide: Rise of the Demon Scorpion took several years to write. I got started on that one by just sitting down at the computer and ventilating my frustrations. I really had no intention of publishing a book. It just felt good (and a bit cathartic) to write. It’s hard to explain. I have been an avid reader since middle school and writing just seemed to come natural.
For this first pass, I didn’t do much research. I didn’t read any learning books on writing. I didn’t have any portion of it reviewed by beta readers. I just went by the ‘seat of my pants’ as they say. A few months later, I had a completed novel and, on a whim, published it on KDP. I fully expected it to be the next big hit.
But nothing happened. While I waited, I started reading books ‘on writing’. One after the other I devoured them, giving myself what Chuck Palahniuk calls a ‘kitchen table MFA.’ I quickly realized I’d made all the mistakes a rookie could make like information dumping in the first few chapters and making my villain a bumbling bad guy. I had taken the easy way out in a lot of scenes too. It was a deterministic plot and I had employed deus-ex-machina. It was a disaster. I had also picked a title that drew in Christian readers instead of those that would enjoy a book depicting a proxy fight between a demon and the lingering spirit of a warrior.
Determined to make it right, I unpublished the novel, bought myself a writing program called Scrivener, and chopped the novel up. I discarded what was useless, condensed what looked to be useful, and added dimension to my characters. I particularly went back and paid special attention to the villain. He became even more intimidating but as the story progressed, the reader grew to understand why he chose the life of a narcotrafficker.
I then proceeded to hire several professional beta readers, and worked through the novel to make the improvements they pointed out. It was a long and detailed process of examining the novel line by line to make sure it had good flow, made sense, and represented the depictions accurately. For instance, how a professional might handle a handgun or a rifle, or how a fight would unfold. Even conversational interactions and internal dialogue about how things were going. The story deals with a single mother, a depressed businessman, and a frustrated cop. Not to mention the spiritual medium. She was my most interesting character to develop. The villain was the most challenging. I had to expand my thinking to see things from his point of view and write from that perspective.
After I completed months of rewriting, I had to select a copy editor to proofread the manuscript. Another lengthy process. I have experience in writing from college as well as business. But most of that was technical writing, scientific literature reviews, and case studies. I had never written dialogue wrapped around human interaction. It is a whole different world. Even after the rewrites from beta readers, who pointed it a lot of mistakes, I still had thousands (something like 6000–7000) grammar, spelling, word choice mistakes. This process took another few months.
Then, once I had the editing done, I moved on to the cover design. I had already had an eBook cover created by a professional. I was really happy with it and rehired the designer to create the paperback and hardback covers. This was another in depth process. When you have your books printed as if they were traditionally published, you have to be very precise with the sizing and spine width, down to the 0.001 inch. Even a minor change in formatting could throw off the spine width and get your publishing request declined. Ingram Spark was my selection for this service, and it took a bit of time, a few weeks, to learn their system and get things lined up for the final publishing stage.
Keep in mind, I was doing all this around my responsibilities running a small business. This was early mornings, late nights, weekends, holidays, and all that. But you know what? All that made little difference. I was stoked to be writing and wrapping up my first novel. I’m not saying it’s some big thing, but it’s a tight story with a professional feel when you read it. Three Worlds Collide is also a novel I can build on for future books. I am in fact, working on the second book (or I should be!) right now. In addition to all that, I built my author website, created my social media accounts, and started posting, mostly on booktok.
My second book, Low Men, went a lot smoother. Before writing this novel, I decided to outline most of the plot instead of writing by the seat of my pants. I wanted to do something akin to a murder mystery, so I read several books about the process. Turns out this genre has a widely accepted set of rules that readers expect writers to abide by, unless you can break them in a way that makes sense. This is called ‘the contract with the reader.’ Anyway, murder mystery is a deep and well-respected genre that has its roots entwined with the likes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the Penny Dreadfuls of the mid-1800s. I also had to read about police procedure, research psychological disorders, and immerse myself in the world of crime. I started reading outside my preferred genre and integrated some of those tones into the plot. For instance, romance novels really expanded my thinking. I started weaving some spicy scenes into the plot line and it really turned out to be a hard-hitting story that was contrasted my moments of human connection deepened character dynamics. The novel mostly fits into the romantic suspense category.
I went through all the same proofreading and editing stages as above and this novel turned out super tight. I am massively stoked on the completed novel and have high hopes for its success. I’ve included a snapshot of these books from my desk.
If you are considering writing a novel, I would hesitate to offer any advice. I only have two books completed and much more to do and to learn. It’s important you find your own way. Best of luck to you. Drop any questions in the comments, I’ll do my best.
Thanks, Gransom Hayes
Three Worlds Collide: Rise of the Demon Scorpion (A supernatural thriller)
Low Men (Romantic suspense: A symphony of psychological disorders wound into a spicy techno-thriller whodunit with a neo-noir vibe with a dash of medium spice. Okay… a bit more than a dash.)
These are available wherever books are sold. Check me out on social media.
This question was originally answered on Quora.com and reproduced here in an edited form. You can follow this link to view the original post:
https://www.quora.com/Have-you-ever-written-a-long-novel/answer/Gransom-Hayes-Author
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