It’s been a little while since I finished the first draft of my book. I knew once I finished it that I was going to take some time away from it before I did anything else. Some of the stories about my dating were a little too fresh for me to be able to review what I wrote. And everything was still new in my mind and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to edit it too much. I did minor editing as I wrote each section, but I needed time away before I could look at it with fresh eyes to see what changes needed to be made.
And even though I wrote so much back in November, I have added stories since then. There have been a few dating situations where I knew I needed a section of my book about it. For example, I had a date last month where the guy thought the best way to fix his need to use a bathroom would be to unzip and pee on the sidewalk as we were walking. That one was so shocking that I didn’t know what to think. I just kept walking because I knew that was the end of that date. I didn’t even tell him I was done. I just kept going until I was sitting in my car. There was no way that the story wasn’t going to be in the book. It wasn’t the craziest date ever, but it’s up there. And it was the first date that I think I was truly speechless.
The main reason why I changed the format of my book to be all about life lessons was that I didn’t need to have a real ending for it. If it was a story of my dating history, I wouldn’t know how to end it until I found someone. But with it being about different lessons, I don’t have to necessarily have a happily ever after to feel like I can finish the book. Of course, I would love it if it did end that way. But I know that I can end it without that.
The next steps for the book are to edit it and then edit it a few more times. I’m pretty certain that I don’t have typos or crazy grammatical errors, but I know the stories aren’t perfect and they are probably a bit rambly (just like my blog posts are). I also probably have some stories that don’t make sense to someone other than me because I can fill in the gaps. So I want to not only edit it myself but have others read it to make sure they feel like it makes sense. Fortunately, I have several friends who have asked if they could read the book so I know I can get a lot of different opinions on if the book works.
But after editing it, I honestly have no clue what to do. I would love to get the book published because I think it is funny and entertaining and maybe a little educational as well. I really think I would have loved to have read a book with stories like mine when I got back into online dating. Plus, some of the lessons are things that I know my friends wouldn’t have thought of if they were in that situation. For example, the ways I am able to do a bit of searching to confirm my dates are telling me the truth about themselves are things that most of my friends have told me they wouldn’t have thought of doing. I would love to save someone from having to learn these lessons on their own and be able to date smarter after seeing my mistakes or issues.
I’ve also had friends who have told me I should turn my stories into a web series or something filmed, but I have never seen my book as a screenplay. I also don’t know how to write scripts so I think that is stopping me from thinking it could be a script. But I would prefer to focus on keeping it as a book and if something else happens from that, then I can figure it out from there. But the plan is to focus on keeping the book a book and seeing what can be done.
But this is where I am stuck. I don’t know how to try to get a book published or if I should look into self-publishing. I don’t know what the steps are to sell a book if I was able to do that. The entire publishing world is foreign to me and I am trying to not be overwhelmed by it. I did a little bit of research on what to do, but that was going a million steps ahead of where I am right now and it just became too much. So my only thoughts and plans are to work on the editing and then when that is done I will do the next thing. And I would love to know what that next thing would be without having to do the research, but I also know that I probably won’t have someone who comes to me telling me step by step what I need to do.
I’m going to try to start a bit of the editing process in the next month or two and then I guess I will just be figuring it out from there. And hopefully, when I get to the next step, I will have more updates I can share or I will have a better idea of what might come next.
You Might Also Like
Not Sure How I Did With My Last Monthly Challenge (or Another Attempt At NaNoWriMo)
I Might Write A Book (or The Bumble Avenger)
NaNoWriMo Take 2 (or Still Working On The Same Book)
Continuing To Work On My Book (or I Wonder How Many Versions I’ll Have Before I Finish It)
Figuring Out The Next Step (or I Need To Keep Acting)
I Actually Wrote A Book! (or Getting Myself Ready For 2020)
