WRITING A BOOK

Hello everybody Drew here, and todays blog is about writing a book. Well, my book is what I really mean. So where do you start. I often wondered about that myself until I actually started penning Harry Alliss. The only thing I researched was how many words do I need to write to complete a typical children’s book. I based it on fifty thousand words give or take. That’s a lot of words, and a bit like a jigsaw all of the pieces need to interconnect somehow to make up the complete story. Easy really isn’t it 😊
So why a children’s book. I guess that’s because the child in me never left me. I always had a story inside my head and when I became a dad those stories found a ready audience with my children. Luckily, they liked the stories that I made up and that memory stayed with them as they grew to be adults. As an observation I loved writing once I did start. I was in Harry’s world, which was as far removed from the reality of everyday life and the world we live in with all of its attendant problems. I could write for hours and not feel as if I was tired by it. I was very happy in my little bubble.
Now in my professional life I did write a lot of technical documentation. Some were very detailed, and others were what we in the industry termed as ‘Cookbooks’. Simply put, a series of instructions for a complicated task that someone else could read and carry out the task. In some cases, it was just a memory aid. So, I was used to writing, but now my audience were to be children. I had to re-learn and develop a style so that the story line would be engaging, funny at times, with a hint of magic and possibly mystery that could make a child want to ask a question if they weren’t sure about something. The reader could be a parent/guardian or a child reading to other children. My thoughts were as a bedtime read which is where my children loved to have a story read to them. It soothes the day away and makes you feel all the better for it.
Harry Alliss has fourteen stories, so one story for every nighttime read. Two weeks of having a different story read out, then you can pick your favorites and re-read them over and over and over again. What fun! That was the plan.
My thought process was each story has a start, a middle and an end. It really couldn’t be any simpler. Again, something I learned in life. Keep it simple or KISS. You can work out what the last S stands for 😊
Harry is made up of two books each one has seven stories. I did that because I thought I would only do the one book, but the story lines kept coming and Book Two very soon appeared. Then after talking to my friends at Austin Macaulay, they said that more content usually produces a better book. So, we went for Book One and Two being combined. I hope you like that.
Next time I’ll talk about editing and re-reading the story until you as an author are happy with the content and flow of the story line. Till then, take care, keep safe and happy reading. Drew.

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