Would You Have Started Your First Book If . . .

I often wonder if authors would’ve even started writing their first book, had they known how long it would take them to ‘perfect’ and finally finish it.

I started Sunday’s Child on the 6th of January and finished it on the 30th of the same month in 2005. It took me just 24 days to record the events of what I now know, was the first of the three parts of my life. Of course I had to go over the manuscript for subsequent rechecks and rewrites, but it surprised even me, that I remembered this period of my life with such accuracy.

Today, in March, 2009, I feel as though I’ve finally finished, and it makes me a bit sad (or is that a symptom of withdrawal). You see, I’ve always been involved in writing this book, no matter what else I was writing or doing, Sunday’s Child has always been ‘the project’ I was working on.At the start of this journey, I sat in my living room, day after day, and wrote with abandon -almost in an out-of-body sort of activity - typing away on my husband’s old, broken-mouse laptop.Every day, after we took the older kids to school, I would come back home and write until it was time to pick them up again, taking a short break at lunch-time to have something to eat before I picked the little one up from nursery.

After the first draft was over and re-written a few times, the actual writing seemed to move at a slower pace. I’ve now lost count of how many I ‘finished’ the book, but have arrived at a point where there is nothing more I can do to it. There is nothing more I can express differently to make it the best it could be. I started ‘Fair of Face’ (the follow-up) as soon as I had completed the first draft of ‘Sunday’s Child’ because I knew that although the first part was through, there was still so much more to be said. It shocked me that there are even more unbelievable events in this second part of my life. If the first part was growing up, then the second was certainly growing out – of whom I was groomed to be.

Now that I’ve finally finished, I wonder if I would’ve thought it was a good idea when my husband first suggested it, had I known it would’ve taken me so long, not just to complete, but to get published. Writing has indeed been easy, the hard part has now punched me right smack in the face.