I Had To Take A Writing Vacay!

"Here's an update for you all on the fabulous new book I have been writing..."

I wrote for seven weeks straight to produce a new first draft of my wonderful new adult/fantasy/romance, Tropical Transformation. I will fully admit I was in my bliss waking up every day and letting my fingers roll across my iPad in a fury as my the words of my story took shape and ‘hit the page’. I was writing morning, noon and night, and there were many times when I had to force myself to get up, take a break, go for a walk, get something to eat, or connect with the world. However, after I completed that whopping 59,000-word first draft, I found myself experiencing a huge letdown period, because, going forward each day, I was not waking up to give birth to new plots, events or characters as I was writing the story, which I was fully living in, to create. It was done.

That is not to say the book is completed, by any means. Now starts the analyzing and editing, the fact-checking, grammar and sentence structure checking, analyzing the flow, and reworking the words to make a polished final draft to publish. Trust me, there will be many drafts along the way until I end up satisfied with my story.

First up, I have taken my iPad chapters and created several word docs on my computer, which I then meld to make the running chaptered ‘inside matter’ of my book. Then I start to do a number of checks, like review the chapter synopsis summary to the flow of the story. Then I check the facts, like character and place names and their spellings.

In this new book, the location of the story is in Hawaii, and so, as I do not currently live in Hawaii, I am doing a lot of research to learn about Hawaii in current time, (note that the exact story location on the islands in my book is not clearly determined, nor recognizable). This works better for me when I am writing a fictitious storyline, but some of the main facts about the islands need to be believable for my readers.

About a week ago, I was in the middle of setting up the chapters and starting to do the editing process when an exciting vacation invitation appeared, that would take me out of town to attend. This was also at the same time a massive wildfire started in the area near to where I live. I managed to get enough information to take the vacation and then be able to stay away for the entire weekend event and loving receive (from some special new friends) some much needed positive energy after finding out I was on a Fire Evacuation Alert back home. (Girl Guide that I was, I already took valuables out of the house before I drove off on vacation in case the newly started fire got worse and I was on Evacuation Order, which is obviously much more concerning because you cannot return to your home to get anything out. Many people I knew in town were, in fact, under an Evacuation Order and not just an Alert like me. Thankfully, all but one poor fellow I have since met, did not lose their homes).

During all of this writing vacay time I didn’t write, except one short poem, written to express gratitude (as I often do) to my new friends after the opportunity of attending the fabulous weekend event.

It also occurred to me after pouring my heart out for seven weeks straight of writing that I really needed a vacay from writing, which is almost unheard of for me. That busy and exciting weekend schedule with friends away from home, made it easy for my little fingers and my busy mind to have a rest, which I very much needed with all that was going on.

I’m back home now, happy, but exhausted from an amazing trip away, but still feeling humbled by the massive fire damage. My home was put on Fire Evacuation Alert while I was away that weekend and the main highway to the next city closed. However, as I post this to my blog today my home is gratefully off the Fire Evacuation Alert status, and, although the fire is not out, and it is still smoky in my area from time to time, the fire at least, is not as threatening here, and the highway is also open again. Yay!

My computer is back out today, firstly, for this blog post, and then to return from my writing vacation and get back to work. My vacay is over, and the first draft of my book is calling me…so I am now back at it now, chapter by chapter, all geared up and all excited to be delving back into the pages to polish it off to make it all sparkly and ready for you to read down the road.

Stay tuned for my new book, Tropical Transformation, to be published and available for you to download as an eBook on Amazon in the not-to-far-off future. It is a such a fun story, with bits of mystery, intrigue, self-discovery and romance, and I am happily looking forward to sharing it with you!

Cheers! Lise