Dear Song of the Desert (A Letter to My Novel)

Saturday, April 2, 2016

Dear Song of the Desert, 

Hey-o.

Yesterday marked our one year anniversary. The beginning I drafted then was so different from how it is now. Goodness, the book itself is almost an entirely different story. 

The story took place in some sort of wasteland, and my mountain caves were forests. Your title was The Music Master. Half of the characters didn't exist, and my main character, Gita, didn't have her poor vision struggles. 

I wrote the last word on July 11th, 2015, taking a little longer than I normally do to write novels. You were my second novel... ever... to write, and you should feel pretty important because of that. 

We've gone through about five drafts together, now. Those early stages were hard to write. You were sometimes always a pain, but somehow we got through it. Now you're off to beta readers(*sniff* look at my baby -- all grown up), and I just have to wait in fear while they tear you apart.

This whole journey wasn't perfect, though. There were tears. There were lots of moments of frustration. I felt discouraged. I compared you to other novels.  I lost chapters due to computer problems. There were many times when I wanted to pitch you in the garbage and just g i v e  u p.  But you certainly taught me how to persevere through something tough, so thank you for that, I guess.

You were also troublesome -- I think everyone on this blog can testify to that from all my moaning about the struggles of editing. ;) And it wasn't only editing, it was writing, too. I got stuck in places. I thought the plot was going to be done when I was 23,000 words in. That gave me a scare. (until I got to 93,000 words. I'm really bad at estimating, okay?) You liked giving me ideas for new plot lines after I was halfway through editing a draft.

Also, typos. Typos and lines such as: THIS ALL STINKS UGHHH, were commonly found in my first couple drafts. 

I still have those moments and freak outs where I think, "Is this even good? The sequel's a mess. My characters are stupid. Everything's stupid." But it's become less. I'm finally starting to see good parts in you, as long as it may have taken.

Yes, you were a troublemaker, but you could've been worse. Editing could've taken so much longer. Seven months is a long time, and I hope to get faster at it with later books, but I managed to get it done. And in less than a year.

I get excited (and rather nervous) when I think about what's ahead of us. Comments from beta readers. Editing those comments from beta readers. And, in the future, we can start down the route of publishing. *screams* There's lots to come, but we'll get through it.

I want to end this before it gets too cheesy and I get all teary eyed, but thank you for being you, as tough as you may be sometime.

It's been an amazing journey, and I can't wait to continue on it with you. 

Love,
your author.

// post inspired by Aimee's letter to her WIP

What would you say in a letter to your novel? How long have you been working on your current WIP?
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59 comments :

  1. Take heart Katie, I don't think your characters are rubbish, or everything's stupid! I've almost finished reading it actually, and I'm enjoying myself humongously.
    And I've just got to say that I love how you started with 'Hey-o.' I just love that. :)

    Originally I was planning on taking a year to write my first novel (I was using the OYAN curriculum) buuut I kinda got slack and I'm still editing. Or rather, putting off editing however I can. I really should get to it. But this month I'm busy writing for Camp nano. And next month I'll probably have some other excuse. And...Yeah, you get it.

    (I wrote one thousand words for nano again! I'M SO EXCITED!! I usually struggle to write that much in a day, and now it's just coming! I just can't believe what I'm doingggg!!!!)

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    1. Hello Jane!
      So...I'm kinda jumping in on your conversation...but I saw a fellow OYAN user!!!!!! I did it last year, and it was so much fun!!! I am publishing my novel soon too. =) How did OYAN work for you??

      ~Hosanna Emily
      HavingaHeartLikeHis.blogspot.com

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    2. Oh wow, Hosanna! Great job for actually nearing getting it published! OYAN was really great, I loved it. But when I got the the editing stage life got a little crazy and I was absolutely certain my novel was completely and utterly idiotic so I kinda gave up until recently...and I realised that only about half was terrible. It's up to draft four-ish I think.
      Bet you're excited about publishing!

      (P.S. Did you want anyt beta or influence readers? 'Cause I love doing that kind of stuff)

      ~ Jane - MistyMaiden.blogspot.com

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    3. Aww, thank you so much, Jane! Glad you're enjoying it and am excited to hear your thoughts. :D

      Oh, hello fellow OYAN users! :D I used OYAN, too. Two years ago, I think? I didn't like it very much, to be completely honest. I'm not much of a plotter so that was hard for me. :P But it was still a good experience.

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    4. Jane--I loved OYAN too! It helped me do a lot of organizing beforehand, which made my editing fly by! The novel I'm working on now (without OYAN), I did without organizing and plotting...and it needs tons of editing. =)

      I love your blog!! And, by the way, you have another follower. =) I would love if you checked mine out. ;)

      Beta readers? Actually, I only have one more person reading this novella before publishing...so I don't need any for this one. But I'll try to keep you in mind for the next time I need some readers!! =)

      Katie--Why?? Plotting is so helpful...**hides the fact that I completely skipped it for my WIP**! I liked using OYAN. =)

      Oh! And I love your novel! It's one of my favorite books right now! I was so sad to put it down for the night!!! =( All I can say is: WOW. It's so good.

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    5. Thanks Hosanna! I followed your blog too! :) Really cool to find another Christian writer and big-family home-schooler! :D

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  2. AHHHH! I love this post so much haha :)

    To my previous novels I'd definitely say "I wish we stayed together longer than just a first draft." This year though I'm hoping the drafts I write will actually be edited.

    Good luck to you and your novel with beta readers! I can't wait for some reason to get to that step!

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    1. AWWW! Thank you! :)

      The way you phrased that makes it sound like you broke up with them. Ahh, the relationship between writers and their novels...

      Thank you! I'm sure you'll do awesome. It's so exciting. :D

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  3. I would totally write a love letter at the moment. xD Maybe, about a monthish?

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    1. Awww, you totally should! Make sure to link me to your post when you're finished. :D

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  4. I love your letter to your novel!

    I just started my current WIP yesterday. Yay, Camp NaNo. So I can't really write a letter to it yet . . .

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    1. Yay for Camp. xD But that's so exciting! I hope to hear more about your Rapunzel retelling, because it sounds awesome.

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  5. I LOVE YOUR NOVEL! HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH IT? *Makes mental note to try harder so as to write as good as you*

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    1. THANK YOU SO MUCH ANIKA EEEK! *squeals* It just... came to me. "Your Love is a Song" is the song that inspired it. :)

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  6. Aw, this post was awesome. I love how it outlines your writing journey. Even though I'm not doing Camp NaNo, I may have had a new story idea yesterday ;)

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    1. Oh my g o o d n e s s. Really?! Okay, I need to remember to email you about this. How exciting. :D

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  7. AWW I LOVE THIS KATIE! I haven't finished a full-length novel before *sniffles* but I have a feeling when that happens, I will be just as teary-eyed and nerve-cited about it as you! ;) Right now I'm about 15,000 words into a little something I'm just doing for fun over the summer. I need something to keep my hands busy and it may end up being my first novel that I never do anything with - something to get my hands dirty a bit, get used to the novel-writing process - but hey, I'm looking forward to it.

    I absolutely can't WAIT to read Song of the Desert. If it's as amazing as you, then I'm positive I'll love it! :)

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    1. Aww, you'll get there! Writing is hard work. :P Plus you have a really crazy blog schedule, so I'm surprised that you even have time for anything else! xD

      You're so sweet! I can't wait for you to read it someday. :)

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  8. I love this! I'm currently in the process of writing my first novel, so a lot of these feelings were very familiar;) I wish that I'd signed up to beta read!! I'm dying to read this literary masterpiece!

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    1. How exciting! You'll do awesome. *nod*

      Aww, I'm sorry! Hopefully with another book you'll be able to beta read.

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  9. This was such fun to read!

    I don't know what I'd say in a letter to my novels. They're not technically novels since I didn't finish them and they were written a long time ago at ages 10 and 11. But I got surprisingly close to the 50K mark, and I learned a lot through that experience.

    I'd probably say . . .

    Dear (unfinished) novel(s),
    You are horrible. You have AWFUL cliches and the most cringe-inducing plotholes EVER. Your characters are all clones in personality, and your underlying themes aren't even there. But I learned a lot through writing you. It's an experience I'm glad I had.

    :P Yeah . . . those first novels were HORRIBLE. They involved your typical cliched world-jumping, villains-who-wear-only-black-and-summon-dragons, perfect European setting, and priceless jewels in the mountain that needed to be found. *cringes*

    It was so fun reading your letter to Tan, Katie! All your hard work has payed off, resulting in a beautiful novel. :D

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    1. Awww, your poor novels. :P I can definitely relate to my first novel. *cringes* And the first draft of Tan. Things weren't good with it. xD

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  10. Love this, Katie! So sweet. (;

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  11. This is a real cool post idea, you've got quite a connection with your novel and that's awesome to see. Some of my WIPs have been with me for a few months, some many years. My one fantasy novel that I just finished the first installment of last summer I've been working on since I was 11 (so about seven years ago!). It IS tough and a lot of work and you often feel like quitting, but the results are so very worth it. Keep going and get that book published someday!

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    1. Whoah, you've been working on that novel for ELEVEN YEARS!? Dude. That's serious dedication. o.o You go, girl! <3

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  12. Oh my goodness, this sounds exactly like the kinds of things I think when I'm writing! I don't know how many times I have written "this is stupid. Make it stop" in the margins of my stories.
    I'm working on two novels right now. My first has been with me for the past five or six years--since I first decided to try writing. My second is only a few months old.
    The thing is, even though the stories feel like garbage, I don't think they're as bad as we think. Good luck!

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    1. RIGHT?! It's one of my most common phrases in my first draft. That, and "ughhhh." Ugh summarizes my feelings about writing perfectly.

      You're so right! Usually they're better than we think, and it's a good thing to keep in mind. (aside from, maybe, our first novels... :P)

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  13. Katie, so far Song of the Desert is so good! I haven't been able to read as much of it as I would like, because I am in the middle of another book. (I strictly read one book at a time) hehe...

    Us Beta readers can tell that you did SO MUCH WORK with your novel! It's amazing!! I can't wait to read the whole thing!!

    ~Hosanna Emily

    HavingaHeartLikeHis.blogspot.com

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    1. Thank you so much, Hosanna! I'm glad you're enjoying it. ^.^
      And no stress! That's a good rule to have, ha. I try my best to obey that rule, too, but I make exceptions for school books and fun books. :P

      SO MUCH WORK. o.o But it's all paying off. *squeal* So exciting. :D

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  14. This is a neat idea. I like your letter!

    Congrats on getting your WIP to beta readers! I hope it goes well. :D

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    1. Thank you, Ashley! So far so good! Though I haven't gotten any feedback, so maybe that's why it's going so well... ;)

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  15. Awww I love this. I'm really loving this novel (you've already got me greeting people by saying "hey-o", oh my gosh xD) and YOU HAVE PUT SO MUCH WORK INTO THIS IT'S AMAZING. YOU WIN AT EVERYTHING. *hands pizza*

    Also, there is a 100% chance I will steal this idea and do a letter to my own WIP when I send it out to betas xD

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    1. WELL THANK YOU, YOU WONDERFUL PERSON. *devours pizza*

      Oh my gosh. Do it. We'll all just steal Aimee's genius ideas and pass it on along the blogosphere. xD

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    2. Yes, because this IS a really good idea. *nod*

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  16. Aww, I love this idea! I should really do this for my book. It would be fun to have the writing memories documented in a short version to look at later.

    Let's see...I would tell my novel that I've never cried so much over one story, but never have I felt such a sense of pride and success over one, either.

    I've been working on it since November...my first NaNo. :)

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    1. You really should! :D I'm excited to read back on it in a year or two. :D

      Ha, I understand everything about that comment. *sighs at the troublesome novels*

      Ooh, your first NaNo? HOW EXCITING! Do you think you'll do it again this year?

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    2. YES! VERY EXCITING! I'd love to do NaNo again, but November is a really terrible time of year for me. So I might just spend November editing, since it's takes a little less creative power. *cringes at the thought* I don't know what will happen...we'll see!

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    3. *gasp* EDITING? For NaNo?! Ewww. ;) That would be hard to do. :P

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  17. Ugh, my comment has just been deleted :( Because I logged onto my old blog, on which I am not blogging at the moment right now (*double ugh for school and parents*) So yeah. I am going to summarize my "fantastic" comment. It was long. And I am mad at google right now. But whatever.

    I am NOT going to tear your fantastic book apart, just going to comment every second sentence (you will have so much to read through when I send you the pdf with the comments and edit tips). By the way, you also have about 5 emails to read WHICH I JUST SENT YOU BECAUSE YOUR BOOK IS AWESOME AND I NEEDED TO TELL YOU STUFF. Sorry for yelling in all caps, but I am just really excited about your book.

    Gotta finish my comment now, i am going to keep reading :)
    yours, Doro

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    1. Sighhh, that's always the worst. I wish it would automatically save your comment. *scolds comment eating machine*

      Oh my gosh, I'm so excited to read all your comments! And don't feel bad about leaving some critiques -- that's the whole goal of beta reading. ;)
      I READ ALL THE EMAILS! Thank you for offering to make a cover! I'm super excited about the finished result. :D

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  18. Oh how beautiful! Now I want to write a letter to my WIP!

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    1. Thank you, Madeline! You really should -- I'd love to read it! :)

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  19. Second novels are kinda a big deal.

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    1. They areee. I think EVERY novel is a big deal, but this one was special. :D

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  20. I really enjoyed this. You wrote it wonderfully. It was nice to have a little peek into your writing process. Plus you could feel the emotion. So again a really great post.
    I feel pretty honored to be one of your beta readers for, I am sure, such a great novel. It's inspiring that you are only a teen and you've written two novels. It's great.
    I on the other hand am to scared to write a novel. I don't have a laptop or anything so I'd have to do it on one of my parents laptops or hand write it. I've got a little story prompt in my head so maybe I'll wrote something soon....

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    1. Awww, thank you so much, Brooke! <3

      Oooh, you should totally try to write a novel! And you can always start off slow. You could start with a short story, and expand it or just practice writing smaller works to see if you want to commit to a bigger one.

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  21. Awwww! *hugs the novel dearly because I can't wait to start it*

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    1. *pushes you to write your own lovely novel so I can read it* :P

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  22. This was SO good, Katie! I loved it! (and SOTD rocks and it exploded my mind after I finished reading it and Ican'teverthinkofwordsforitHELP). I'm so honored to have been one of the beta readers for your awesome story! Also, I'll probably be e-mailing you soon to tell you some stuff about the story that my brain didn't think of while I was filling in your beta reader questions. *scolds brain*

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    1. AAHHHHHHH. adjskflasf oh my gosh, thank you so much. o.o *screams*

      I THINK you should be able to edit your response? Maybe. Not sure. Otherwise a new form or an email works. :D

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  23. So I just have to say - holy canole you're popular LOL. This is cool. Can I write a letter to my novel? I don't like stealing people's ideas, but this is such a cool thing!!!

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    1. Aww. xD *blushes* It's been fun getting to know a lot of other writers through blogging. :D

      YES GO AHEAD AND STEAL IT! I stole it from Aimee -- it's just important to link back to the person so you're giving some credit to them. And make sure to drop a link once you've written it up! I'd love to read it. <3

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  24. AHHH I LOVE THIS. THIS IS JUST SUCH A GOOD IDEA. I wrote letters to my books waaay back, like, omg, maybe when I first started my blog?! It's such a fun thing to do and I'd love to do it again sometime. Right now I'd probably just growl at my current WIP for being so long. I like short books. (Not so much editing...shhh, yes that is 100% the reason I want them to e 60K max. XD) My book that I just finished writing I've only been working on for 2 months. o.O But now it's having it's 6 week break and then edits. Agh. I hate edits. I stand with you in mutual frustration of edits.

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  25. Love this! One of my favourite things is the knowledge that all over the world, girls (and boys too, I guess, though they're basically unicorns in the blogosphere) are writing books that they're deeply passionate about. I feel as if our fantasy worlds are spheres floating above us that all kind of brush each other, and we get glimpses into other people's through their blogs. Which is cool.

    That doesn't really make sense, but yeah.

    It's amazing to look back at Draft 1 and see how much things have changed. My MC is a different person now to who she was in 2013, when I started. And the world (which started off so generic) has grown so amazingly much. It's really incredible to look at the change. I've been with it since June 2013 and have written three drafts; starting the fourth in May and then giving to betas in the summer! It's my first book and I can't believe that in a few months it'll be sent off for others to read. My non-writer friends say, "you treat that book like your child that's leaving home", WHICH IS TRUE.

    Really lovely post, Katie! All the best with Song of the Desert, and your future projects! (Squee!)

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  26. This is so cool.
    I might do one like this....... it would be fun.

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  27. Since my two year anniversary of finishing my first book is coming up, I thought that I would do something like this. To kind of steal your idea (or borrow) if I wrote a letter to my novel, would that be cool? If not, that's understandable. :)

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    1. Go right ahead! It would be great if you could link back to this post to credit where you got the idea from if you don't mind!

      I'm excited to read it -- CONGRATULATIONS for the anniversary coming up! How exciting. :D

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