You Don't Know what You Don't know
The end of a very fast 2024 is on our heels and I am reminiscing about my journey as a writer. I had a lot of big goals, things I wanted to see happen and some of them didn’t come to pass, but there are quite a few wins I didn’t expect to appear in the bingo book. My Mother has always told me to do the best you can and everything will work out in the end. Well, in the process of writing the first book in Rise of the Demon Gods, I nearly lost faith.Â
I wanted to trash the project, even though I adore the characters and the world building has been nothing less than a labor of love. At the end of draft one, I was hopeful and then I let it rest and reread and found that I had so much work to do. Real heavy lifting that would take a lot of brain power that I just didn’t have in the tank.
So, away it went to collect dust on my harddrive. For a while, all I did was read. I read and read. Books have always been my escape when things get tough, so I found wonderful, magical distractions between those pages. But that solace could only last so long. About a month actually because I have a gaggle of friends who will not let up. And honestly, I am extremely grateful for each and everyone of them. These connections have seen me through so much self doubt and imposter syndrome.Â
When I have an issue, I like to throw myself full force into finding a solution. Pantsing a novel that I intended to publish was not a good idea, in fact, it was a very terrible one. The only thing I could do to salvage the project was to re-outline, but this time with structure. Yes, I needed to rely on the dreaded creativity killer to get my manuscript in fighting form. Â
I read many books on how to plot novels, attended Youtube university for in-depth breakdowns on structure, and started writing other things (things that have been getting accepted into amazing places) to practice this new skillset. Â
As much as I hated the thought of hitting certain beats to tell a story, I found that I was naturally doing this in my own work after years of writing and reading many, many books. So these concepts and plot points that once seemed so forengin were actually conventions I already had in my arsenal, but I would feel these story shifts instead of knowing them.
I am going to pause to plug a really amazing developmental editor and friend. E.A. Noble has championed me through this process and if you are looking for an editor who understands and loves breaking down stories, you couldn’t be in better hands. Check out her website for rates and contact information.
Now with these shiny new tools that I now knew how to wield, I decided draft one was just a brain dump and draft two is now the real story. So, I plotted, and plotted and plotted some more. I made sure I hit all the story beats and my through line was present in each one of those sections. Once the outline was done I edited the outline (I know. Wtf is that?). Once I was happy with where everything sat, I made my chapter summaries.
This was a lot of work and I wasn’t even rewriting the scenes/chapters yet. I revised this several times as well. I can’t express how much effort I have put into making sure this story is good, like really good. I want to be proud of this even a decade later when I am a much better and more experienced writer.
Thank you for bearing with me and following this wild journey. In the time I have been doing all this, I’ve written so many short stories, seen myself grow and started putting my work out there in literary journals.Â
Compared to where I was last year, I have made an immense amount of progress and I can only hope as the new year comes, I continue this upward growth. There two short story projects I want to get edited and submitted before I can start writing in Rise of the Demons Gods again, however that series is number one priority for 2025. The very lofty goal is to get two of those books drafted and edited by start of 2026. Wish me luck and fairy dust.Â
I hope you have a wonderful holiday. See you in the new year!
Until Next Time,
Tonja K. Johnson
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