Making Or Breaking, Writing A Book

Greetings, reader! I'm writing this post to the scream of the seagulls, which could be take as an indicator to where I'm staying now. Near the sea. I'm now staying with some friends in Broadstairs. Their house isn't on the seafront but you can see the sea from some of the upstairs windows, like the view from one of windows, of the room I'm staying, in on the third floor.

Since I've been here in Broadstairs (I arrived on Tuesday evening after spending my first few days in England with my mum's aunt), I've been doing quite a bit of thinking, especially about starting a new book. One of things I've loved doing, over the years, is writing books and poems. It's risky saying things like "Yes, I am going to write a book about..." The reason why is simple, actually. I'll either not write the book at all, or it'll end up going a totally different direction that first intended. So I won't tell you what my book's going to be about just yet, simply because I'm still thinking about the details, the characters (their names and descriptions), the location, when it takes place, stuff like that. It's a fragile stage at the moment. There have been people have told me I need to structure my books according to an outline of some kind, but that causes quite a huge problem as I end up writing all sorts of twists and turns that surprise even me, the author. The ideas come quite suddenly and take the whole story away from the intended plot. So getting the story back onto the plot is too complicated for me that I end up giving up on the book all together. I always find it really difficult admitting that a manuscript isn't going anywhere and needs to scrapped because I can't salvage it. The difficulty is because I so want my books to succeed, to be completed, even if no one ever wants to read them when I'm done.

A few years back, I wrote a book for a very dear friend of mine, Sharon. She was coming back to Uganda to visit after being in the United States in university, and I wanted to give her something to take with her to read, something to make her laugh. So Susan, Sharon's younger sister, and I had such fun discussing the different parts in the story, sometimes late into the night. We wanted the characters to be serious and funny at the same time, which was quite a challenge. There were also a few sleepless nights, when the story was coming to me fast and furiously, and I would loose track of time trying to get the story into my laptop fast enough. I think that if I'd been forced to scrap the book right at the end of the year I'd spent writing it, it would have definately take a while for me to start thinking about writing another book. The characters had all been on their own journeys, as the book spans about seven or eight years. The story began before the start of World War II and ending roughly around Victory in Europe Day (8 May 1945*). As the writer, I had been on characters' different journeys with them. I must say that writing isn't what it seems. There are so many lovely books out there and even more that haven't been published. I've never tried to publish the book because I know how problematic publishing a book is (and how dramatic it can be). After much thought, I decided not to bother going down the road of self publication. I guess writing a book whilst in Africa hasn't helped with the publication process. Maybe one day I'll get round to publishing the book myself.

*Important Note: the Second World War doesn't end until Victory over Japan Day (also known as Victory in the Pacific Day), on the 15th of August Japan's surrender was in originally announced and on the 2nd of September, World War Two was brought to an end with the official signing of the surrender document. Whilst the United States celebrates V-J Day the 2nd of September, the United Kingdom celebrates V-J Day on August 15th (the information in this paragraph is sited from Wikipedia).

If you're interested in knowing what it's about, it's about a young woman who's parents had died before the start of the book and she lived about an hour (by train) from London. The story starts with her walking into a soldier, and drops her bag. Thinking he was going to rob her, she slaps him. They do meet later the same day, and over the course of some months, become friends. The war comes and takes them on their separate paths, his goes to war and hers to raising their children, for they had married. There are twists and turns in there, and I deeply enjoyed writing it. Because I wasn't sure what direction the story was going to take, I didn't know what to call it, so for most of the time I spent writing it Susan and I called it 'the book' or 'WWII Manuscript' so even to this day, that's the title that jumps to mind. I can't, for the life of me, remember what title I gave it in the end.

Moving on to other topics, for those of you who are wondering what's going on in my life at the moment, beyond my thoughts of writing books. I mentioned at the beginning of this post (and the location points to this) I'm in Broadstairs, with some dear family friends. Over the next few weeks (after my bank card arrives) I'll be going about, visiting a few friends and family members. My plans will be coming together more next week

My beautiful, talented sister, Hannah has her graduation ceremony tonight in Paris. You're probably wondering why I'm not over there, celebrating, with my parents, aunt and great aunt, but Hannah could only rustle up two extra tickets (she could take two guests with her to begin with). When it was decided who was going with my parents to be with Hannah, I still didn't know know where my next port of call was doing to be after Hoedsruit. My plane ticket was booked toe days before my parents left South Africa (talk about last minute).