Each Book is Different

Posted byChantelle GriffinPosted inWriter ThoughtsTags:, ,

It’s surprising to think how different each story can be. At first the focus was solely on finding the ideal method to shorten the writing process. It would be nice the story wrote itself, but there is still hard work to be done. Figuring out them how left me trying several different ways to outline, write and keep track of time.

Each Stage

The first story was a meandering journey that led down several paths. It took a whole six years to write the first draft and I was determined to shorten this. The easiest book to write was the second, providing a false sense of optimism. The third was almost as quick, yet almost half needed to be rewritten. From there it took a long, sometimes frustrating path, working through the four story. I won’t lie, there were times when it would have been easier to leave the fourth book unfinished. What kept me going was the fact that it was part of a series.

Reaching the End

After spending so much time editing it was still a massive task to back and find story within the draft. The first draft took three years, far longer than I expected. Yet there were many obstacles between those years that prolonged the process. The story had also become complex. Characters had grown and changed. The story had a lot of heavy lifting to do to fit in with the development of the series. The stakes in the story had risen and it was time to wrap up loose ends. The journey moved in a different way. I can certainly say it was worth staying with the story until the end.

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.