Ten Years of Novel Writing

Posted byChantelle GriffinPosted inWriter ThoughtsTags:, , , ,

10 Years of WritingOn 8 November 2005 I began the longest story I had ever written in my life. This began with 70,000 words for the first book. The longest I had written before consisted of a mere twenty-two pages. The last ten years had been focused on poetry, and a novel was only something I read. At the time I felt the task was beyond my comprehension. Poems are complicated things. They can be shorter than a page whereas a novel was many times more than that. I had made a few small attempts at short stories yet my heart and love had always been in poetry.

Friendship

My friend Liska told me she had a dream, she wanted to own a business and work for herself. She had her heart set on running a café, and went on to run a successful cleaning business. We were talking over a cup of coffee (in my case tea), and she asked me what my dream was in life. That is the first time I had ever given my thoughts a voice. I said I wanted to write a novel. Liska encouraged me to follow my dream. That is how I found myself on 8 November 2005 in front of my computer screen.

A Novel

The first chapter was awful and had to be removed. The first protagonist died in the first major scene. I was off to a wonderful start. Trying to fit in writing, full-time work, part-time university, and everything else. Then disaster struck for the second time. I had planned on writing a 150,000 word epic fantasy novel. It was to be published in my retirement. Halfway through my heart gave way, and my whole life changed. I slept four months away after the hospital stay. I have been re-building my life ever since. I have a swollen heart and life is as good as it will ever be with this condition. I wrote the end at 70,000 plus words after I was home from hospital, and I always cry when I read it. It may not be much, but it marks that point in my life.

Publishing

I independently published my first book too soon. I am in the middle of preparing to re-release it. I published it not knowing if it would be the last. I am glad to say it will not be with the second already released. A third is at the last stages of editing, and a fourth already begun. Independent publishing gives me the ability to go at my pace. It has been a long journey, and I intend it to be the beginning of so much more.

If there is one question I ask you, it is this – What is your dream in life?

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Published by Chantelle Griffin

Chantelle’s mother remains one of the most famous witnesses in Australian legal history. The first large screen movie the author saw, at the age of nine, had an actress playing her as an infant when she was at Uluru on 17 August 1980 at the same campsite as the Chamberlains. She began publishing poetry later in life with the first release coinciding with the fortieth anniversary of the disappearance of Azaria. While most poems have been released in the volumes for the anthology, more than a thousand were written throughout a twelve year period. Chantelle has a Master of Environmental Planning and enjoys life at half pace with two cats. Her first fantasy book was released too soon, after a near death experience and a second edition was published four years later. She resides in Tasmania and continues to write as a past time in the evening.

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