Yep, exactly what the picture depicts, lots of coffee.

Simply put, you get lost in the world you’re creating. You think of the characters daily and you try to dream about them at night.

Throughout the primordial soup process of building a story, somewhere along the way, you find your voice. And that is hopefully after you’ve already figured out which narrator style you’ll use to tell the story.

I thought my book was finished almost a year ago. And then again almost eleven months ago. And then ten. And then nine…
It became a great learning lesson for me. Editing is where you write your story. But the first draft is still important.

As my first novel (over 200,000 words and counting), I’m not distressed. I’ve learned so much through the process.

If I could give out any advice, I’d say to have fun getting lost in your story; it’s the best part. And don’t be discouraged when editing takes longer than expected. Also, enjoy the process. Why else are you writing!