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| This is just the beginning... Isn't this how every good story should start? |
*This is a
joke. I am working very hard to make sure that this is an enjoyable novel.
The hardest part about writing a book is getting started.
The first time I sat at my desk to write this story was around 2001. (I will
add that this desk was an expertly constructed desk, built using the well-known carpentry tools of a spoon and a high heeled shoe). I was a
student, a mature student I would like to point out (mature at 22!?) and I had decided
to reflect upon my process of coming out. I sat at my “desk”, got one page in
and then received an urgent call to go to the student union for a beer. The
single beer turned in to multiple, the age of 22 turned in to 23, 24 25…. and
the book was shelved. Well, one whole
page of one-finger typing on Word was shelved anyway.
I returned to the book again in 2003 when I found the old
one-pager in a folder on my computer. I re-read what I had written and I
started to add to my initial idea. This
time I got a few pages in before being distracted by the most wonderful thing that
can happen to a humanoid: I fell in love. I had, for many years, been unlucky
in my romantic endeavours but at long last I was swept into the madness of
falling in love and didn’t really emerge from my bubble to function like a
normal human again until approximately 2005.
The initial book idea was very different prior to the events
of 2003 to what it eventually became. The life events I experienced between then and 2005 made me realise that adding
some further elements would make the book a little more interesting and also
would ‘bulk it out’ a bit. An important consideration as my original idea would
have probably only been about 1,000 words long and very possibly would have
been made into a joke toilet roll or something. When I turned my attention to my
story again, the ideas started to marinate, the cogs in my brain started to
turn, I could see the events of my story gathering momentum……. But then I got
distracted again, and I forgot all about it until 2008. (Writing this is making
me wonder if I have ADD or something: I can never quite see something through
to compl… Anyway, what was I saying?)
2008 was the year that I got my first smart phone and I
started to utilise its cunning ‘notes’ application. As I walked to work I would dangerously
(seriously, walking and writing is pretty dangerous – don’t try it at home
kids!) write out a skeleton of my ideas and make a bullet list of how the story
could develop. Further to this, I made a pact with myself that I would write
the book for three hours every evening, following a little timetable I would
make for myself, as I had read somewhere that this was a good idea. Neither of
those ideas ever happened.
In 2011 (yep, three years later), my partner and I moved to
Australia and the thought of starting to write the book occurred to me again.
However, making friends, supporting the local Perth liquor industry and work
took over; there was no time for writing. It was two years after that that I had an epiphany: I left the job which required me to leave the
house at 7am and return at 7pm, (don’t worry about donning the little violin,
there are people out there that work much harder – I’ve worked with them) and I
started a new role which gave me the gift of time.
Now don’t get thinking that I am now some sort of slacker: I
still work very hard (why are the voices in my head laughing!? Seriously, knock
it off) and I still play hard. But in May 2013 something clicked and I just
started to write. And write, and write. It was kind of an accident but suddenly
the words were flowing and it felt right. This time, I made the commitment to
write 2,000 words a night and I was smashing it. I think this was the trick,
keeping the flow going and sticking to a timetable. I set little milestones and
before I knew it I had written 50,000 words and finished my story.
At that point I felt elated that the task was done, and my
idea from 10+ years ago had finally been penned. However, in October 2013,
after a week of this initial feeling of elation, I realised that this book was
far from finished. It had taken me bloody ages to get to this point and all I
had done was literally sit down and bash out some words. I had spent so much
time thinking about getting my ideas on paper that I didn’t just want it to be
a book anymore: I wanted it to be a novel and I wanted it to be a blooming good
one. I slowly realised I was not at the
end of my project, indeed I was just at the beginning….
Written by Corina Hawkins, who is currently writing a book
and edited by Lindsey Barnett, who is a legend.
