Coming Home

    Not normally being one for new year resolutions I surprised myself on the 1^st of January 2011 by resolving to write and publish a novel within a year. I further surprised the thrifty side of my nature by deciding to make it available free of charge. It would be a marketing exercise I decided. If I charged even a nominal sum it might put people off - there's lots of other things around on which to spend 99 pence after all - but if it was free then the only impediment to downloading would be the cover and the synopsis.
    It was going to be, I decided, a full length novel of 100k plus words, and it would be based on a play that I'd started but never completed ten or more years before. In the event the only thing of the play that remained was the idea; the title, Coming Home; and a few lines of dialogue.

    The premise of the book was simple; two boyhood friends had decided to join the army together, but in the event only one of them did. The other remained at home and did something else with his life. Twenty five years later the one who'd joined the army came home and took up his life again in Slaithstone in South Yorkshire where he'd been born and raised.

    In the intervening years since the unfinished play was put to one side and I decided to write the novel, I became a Christian. This I felt should be reflected in the lives of one or more of the characters in the book. It would also be a source of conflict, among the others in the book.

    So, I had my idea, I had a theme, all I had to do now was knuckle down and write the book. I'd tried writing novels before and had quickly got bogged down in details of chronology, continuity, and various other minor but important details. I needed a system, a writing aid. After looking at various software, some more helpful than others, I settled on yWriter, the latest version of which can be found here. yWriter enabled me to break the novel down into bite sized chunks. If you think of a film, it's broken down into scenes, and a novel isn't really any different. The different scenes build into chapters and the chapters become the finished book.

    I was nearly there; nearly ready to start writing, to give life and voice to the different characters buzzing round my head, jostling for space, all wanting to be heard. Next though, were the targets. I wanted this to be a discipline; I didn't want to just look at it every so often, write a few words here, a few words there, and then mid way through March abandon it.

    For some reason 500 words a day came to mind. It was a nice round figure. I was only going to write during the working week; there would no writing at weekends, bank holidays, or holidays from work. This left me with approximately 230 days to write 100k words, which works out at 435 words a day. I was comfortable with that. Some days I'd do more, some less, but I felt it was do-able.

    I won't go through the writing process word by word, but because I'd taken a careful disciplined approach it proved easier than I thought it would. It was still difficult but I was spurred on by the thought that only 5% of people of people who begin writing a book go on to finish it. I wanted to be one of the 5%.

    The book, Coming Home, was self published on the 21^st December 2011 and is available for free on various internet sites. To date it has been downloaded over a 1000 times. If you'd like to read it you can find it by clicking on the title above. A word of warning though, although it is written by a Christian, and has a Christian theme, it deals with real people with real problems in the real world. There is occasional swearing and some sexual imagery.

    So, what next? I've written a novel, and published it. Should I stop there? Maybe I should, but I don't feel that I can. I'm in the early stages of planning a sequel which will answer some of the questions posed at the end of Coming Home. It will also introduce new characters who live in Slaithstone, who at the moment are just voices in my head waiting to have their story told. And, I might even charge a nominal amount for the next one!