Research, a Writer’s Foundations

Having The Secret Diary back from assessment, along with all its invaluable comments, it has become abundantly clear that it requires more research. I’m dealing with issues that happened decades ago so it comes with the territory that I need to find out certain aspects to make my story realistic. Something I took for granted but have otherwise found to not be a very good idea. I also need to do a lot more reading in the ways of today’s teenager.

I’m happy to leave out my indecision – the quirk – since it doesn’t appear to be required. That in itself is a good thing in that I don’t have to stress about putting in details after the fact. I do still need to do a complete rewrite as it’s not reading the way I intended. That’s ok too, because I had in fact been writing it – unknowingly, mind – the way I’m planning on changing it, so it won’t cause a great upheaval.

I’ve been researching a great deal for Devil’s Advocate and I’ve found that even the smallest detail – a single sentence – needs to be thoroughly investigated to maintain authenticity. This story is also dealing with past events and I don’t want the story to fall down simply because I failed to find out an actual fact. Thank heavens for the internet. Mind you, I will also be turning to books since not everything is available online, as I’ve frustratingly found out.

Devil’s Advocate

I have just seconds ago sent The Secret Diary to receive a much needed assessment. This will give it the guidance I require to see it through to final completion. It will also affect the direction that furture stories under this series takes. The word count for it stands at 46355, which is still a bit off the mark, but I’m happy nonetheless.

With The Secret Diary on its way I can now turn to the planning and writing of the next book, Devil’s Advocate. I’m quite excited about this one as it sees characters previously introduced coming into their own and there’s one I’m champing at the bit to write about. She’ll take a fair bit of research but I know it’ll be a fun and quite rewarding process.

So I’ll whip out my trusty exercise book – I’ve got a new green one – and start on the journey that will hopefully see another manuscript finished in the coming months. I’m going to start with an outline and make sure the story line is sound. I’ll then begin on my spreadsheet with the list of events. I might even spoil myself with a passage of writing or two.

Even though The Secret Diary is far from finished I feel confident to start the next one as it’ll be either complete rewrite or just a tidy up when it returns and I don’t want my keyboard to cool just yet.

And So It Begins…

I feel so invigorated and excited. I started writing The Secret Diary last night. Granted the word count was fairly miniscule – a grand total of just over 650 words – but a start nonetheless. I’m wrapped! I’ve got my plan, my MC’s voice is really clear to me and I feel that this book might actually be one of the easier projects to write because I did that one thing I’ve never done before. I planned it!

That brings me to my next project. With The Secret Diary now underway I feel it’s imperative that I start planning the next. Since this is a series I’d like to think I’ve got a few under my belt (although I’m not going to stress about finishing them) before I submit The Secret Diary. Also, and I’ll have to actually get there first, I don’t see myself being able to write the next while still writing the first. That’d just get confusing. I’ll plan number two and then number three. Mind you, I’m hoping this one won’t take too long to finish. I said I didn’t want any deadlines but I would like to think I can have the first draft finished by year’s end.

So onto writing and more planning. I’ve got a working title for the next. Devil’s Advocate will be number two but I’m not sure if it best describes the actual story. In any case it’s what I’ll call it in the mean time.