Book in progress: part five — A little bit about my book & dealing with doubt

To celebrate finishing my first draft, I want to share a little bit about my book with you!

And by a little bit, I mean the bare minimum that you probably already know. Sorry, I’ve had a lifetime fear of being plagiarized, but that’s another story for another time.

Like any good project, it needs a project title. I have a working title, but whenever referring to this project in a casual setting, I usually call it by its project name which is ‘WIP 3859’.

Fun fact about me, I give my projects code names instead of actual titles… codes like ‘3859’ and a new idea I’ve been chewing on ‘MG84’. These names will mean nothing to you but to me, they describe the entire book.

Anyways, as you know my book is a science fiction that gives off similar vibes as star trek/lost in space. It follows a large group of people as they attempt to survive in a strange, unfamiliar world.

My main character is named Joshua. I love him even though he’s a bit of a hand full. I mentioned last time that Joshua likes to “write himself.” So he has completely thrown the arc I wrote for him out the window and taken on a few traits that I did not give him.

I am working on solving this problem in the second draft.

Throughout the first draft, I noticed myself getting a little confused about which POV I was telling it in. The story is told in third-person through the eyes of Joshua, but I started noticing I was telling it more through the point of view of the group.

I’m working on fixing that as well.

One of the biggest problems I’ve been having is the doubt that my book isn’t good. It’s really hard to determine because I created it. And I can’t see the whole book at once. I can only see the scene or chapter I’m focusing on, so I find myself wondering does all of this make sense? Does this all fit together? Is this believable? Or is it too much?

And of course, there’s the dreaded Has this been done before?

I’m just trying to push through. I won’t know if it’s good or not until it’s finished. I think it’s time I take my own advice… The First Draft Pep Talk

I’m getting ready to work on world-building. I hate doing it, so I only worried about the basics the first time around. Well, now it’s time to just get it over with.

On the bright side, I am finally making some headway with Joshua’s character and his relationship with the others, especially with my main female character. She and Joshua aren’t on the best terms, and since the story’s told through Joshua’s pov it just makes her look awful, but she really isn’t, they just don’t get along. I’m finding ways to sprinkle in her character in a positive way here and there.

Thanks a bunch!

— Nerd