How In The World Did I Write A Novel?
Well folks, I did and typed the words ‘The End’ on Nov. 16, 2012 coming in at 606 pages and 120,864 words for my first complete working draft. It was just one day shy of thirteen months after I wrote the word ‘Prologue’ in my notebook. That Prologue is now Chapter 1.
I am sitting poolside in high 70’s degree Florida weather at the end of November after having decided to write my novel’s first blog with the same notebook. You know how authors create suspense by not telling you specifics about their characters for a few chapters? Well, I’m not going to tell you specifics about the novel either. Not yet.
So why am I sending you, the subscribers of The Crystal Tarot Newsletter, my writing blog? Well, everything you have read on this site, well almost everything, is something that one or more of my characters is proficient in. What I teach my clients re the mind/body connection, one of my characters does. What I recommend regarding nutrition my main character recommends (No. I did not mention ViaViente.). What I teach about Tarot analysis, two of my characters do. What I teach about Greek Goddesses one of my characters knows. What I teach about contacting and communicating with your spirit guides one of my characters does a lot. In fact, the guide has a life of his own! There’s more. I’m still revising.
So through reading my novel, you will be going into a journey of psychology, the paranormal, metaphysics, and let me not leave out, romance.
No the novel is not out yet. I am in the editing and revisions stage. I just wanted to keep in touch and let you know what is going on in my life.
What I am going to tell you in this blog is about my writing process, from beginning the novel through submitting to agents and publishers to seeing the book in print and on bookshelves. Without a doubt in my mind, that is going to happen. So you will learn from what I did and will do and if you follow the process that I will be modeling, you too will have your book in print one day.
I do practice what I preach. So reading this blog will give you many clues on how to manifest what you want in life. If you’re doubtful or don’t believe me on that, read the article, My Journey Back, on this site. Every tool I teach on this site, I used for my own recovery after the doctors told my husband and son I had less than a 2% chance of survival in 2000.
“You want to get a traditional publisher? Yeah right!” That’s what I’ve been told by people NOT in the know as well as some in the industry. No one has seen the novel yet, by the way. It was a blanket statement. However, those of you that know me also know I am ‘The Odds ‘Obliviator’’. Put odds up in front of me and I will crash through them sending them into oblivion. I plan to do just that. This is not going to happen magically, well maybe a little, or haphazardly but through a thoughtful step- by- step process where I will be able to measure my success and modify what needs to be corrected.
I will explain to you the good and the bad, the trials and tribulations, the acceptances and the rejections. Becoming bulletproof is key. Get that skin toughened up. Most importantly, remove yourself from the ‘naysayers.’ Not only will I get a traditional publisher. I will get a top- notch well respected publisher who will be confident to know I will have a strong handle on marketing the finished product.
So let’s get started. I was going through a bored stage here in Central Florida. I had my fill of cows and horses and did not hesitate to tell all my friends and anyone I met that I was longing for the hustle and bustle of New York City. I desperately needed mental stimulation. I put it out to the universe to give me some survival ideas.
I had a dream. Yup a real dream. I do dream analysis and take them very seriously. In that dream, I was told to get back into writing and I should write a novel. It was quite specific. The dream told me the title and that it was one of the original screenplays I had written in the late ‘80’s and then re-wrote in the early ‘90’s. This was right before I began my journey into metaphysics, the paranormal and alternative therapies.
Now after all those years I hardly remembered the titles or stories in the scripts. I was in screenwriting from the late ‘70’s to early ‘90’s. I wrote a screenplay a year in between episodics for TV and sitcoms. I went through three agents. I had a lucrative practice in New York as a Script Consultant and self-published two books on screenwriting that I marketed to my national clientele. Since I was a teacher, my day job, it was easy for me to develop a style to enable me to teach the craft. Not all screenwriters can teach exactly what people needed to do. The same goes for many novelists. It’s an unconscious habit. It’s something they’ve done but they’re not able to describe the process to someone who wants to do the same.
My dutiful hubby of thirty-eight years, Bob, went with me to the storage unit and we brought home three boxes of scripts, my notebooks and some writing texts. I pulled out three scripts that were possibilities, mulled them over for a couple of months while I read authors in the crime genre, my genre of preference and researched. Reading and researching never stopped. I am still reading and researching. What my characters were able to get away with in the ‘80’s they can no longer do after 9/11. My re-write would be far from easy. I narrowed it down to one screenplay, the screenplay in the dream. That was my start. I had a 113 page outline.
Okay, so I had an outline. And you don’t, yet. So how do you get an outline? How do you get an idea? How do you develop an idea into a summary? For the answers you have to come back to read next week’s blog. I have editing to go and do.
I look forward to your continued readership.
Next week’s blog will be on my writing web site,
RonnieAllenNovel.com
To Happy and Successful Writing,
Ronnie