First Draft of First Book Done!

August 17, 2024

After a 3-year gap, I am finally returning to blogging about my writing. Recently, I completed the initial draft of my first book, a milestone that fills me with joy. I can proudly say that "I have written a book." While I believe the story itself is strong, I had doubts about my writing skills. Throughout the writing process, my focus was more on telling the story rather than obsessing over the quality of the writing. As I wrote, I tried not to think too much about the writing style as much as I just wanted to get the story down on paper.

I hired a content editor to read through the book.  It was scary putting my creation out there, but it needed to be done.  I gave explicit instructions to give honest feedback.  My editor did a great job and provided some amazing feedback.  I am truly appreciative of the honest and great feedback I received.

But now I start the arduous task of rolling in the feedback.  I have started to incorporate some of the feedback.  However, I am far from done.  As I begin to dig deep into the sea of pages again, I wondered if other authors get tired of their own book with the multiple re-reads and re-writes. 

While I was awaiting the feedback on my book, I started my second book.  I was really having a fun time with this next book.  And the receipt of the feedback on the first book meant I needed to leave this new creation and go back to the older creation.  I finally gave up my new book to start the edits of the first book.  I felt like I was having to rewrite some parts significantly while simultaneously chipping away at my creation. 

This process has surfaced some procrastination behaviors that I thought I had dealt with.  But, I know, that I am always growing and evolving, thus old “stuff” comes up.  So, I am going to deal with this mental block and push through to completing the book.

I have a lot of things on my mind about my book.   

What are my next steps? 

How do I complete the edits?

how do I publish?

how do I promote and launch? 

All these things are important, but it feels like I am letting this distract me from the most important task at hand: completion of my manuscript. 

With that said, I will end this blog so that I can get back to incorporating the edits. 

If you like what you have read, want to follow me on my journey, or are interested in sneak peaks of the book be sure to subscribe to my blog. You can also find me on instagram @p.elle.easter

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“We all need people who will give us feedback.  That’s how we improve.”  ~Bill Gates

“To Destroy is always the first step in any creation.” E.E. Cummings