Novel writing to me is just like sitting down to tell a story—only on paper. I actually wrote Keeping Faith long hand, and it took just a little over a month, but editing took a year. The plot, settings, and the characters came to me as easy as grilling and then savoring a good steak, but oh, how I hate the details of editing, especially since I am a terrible speller. (I know I have spell check, but you have to get close enough so that the little guy in the computer knows what word it is!)
I wasn’t happy with the sequencing of the book, so I moved chapters around three or four times and took out one whole chapter. Honestly, I still don’t like the beginning, but I had to show Patrick as a kid, and that was the best way I knew how.
Promises Kept took about three months to write, but it flowed and gelled for me right from the beginning. I never changed any chapters, just added some here and there in the final edit. It too was written in long hand. Now, I am much more comfortable using the computer, but it makes me nervous that I might lose something so I save continuously and back up at the end of each day. Again, I hate all that part. If I could just write and not worry about technology or details, I would be a much happier writer, but as they say, ‘the devil is in the details.” I believe it!