I was going to write about another topic, but over the holidays I was cleaning out one of my drawers and I found a stack of papers. “What’s this?” When I looked, I was shocked. It was the very first draft of my book, Trankarri – The Boy with a Magical Pen only it wasn’t called that. The first draft was titled, Pen and Ink. Here is a photo of the first page, but I want you to focus on the first paragraph.
I took this picture so that you can see where it all started. This was in 2009 and I knew nothing of how to write a book or how to start a story. I only had an instinct based upon a good premise. That premise as said in a previous blog was a boy gets a magical pen from his grandfather, draws a drawing and goes into the drawing and has an adventure. The first paragraph reads just like that – no heart, no soul, no voice, no Dragon-fire. But I had to start somewhere.
Thank God I was attending the Institute for Children’s Literature because in the next photo, this is what I turned in as a lesson.
This is slightly different. Better, but still I did not have my voice, I did not have my Dragon-fire. Talent needs practice. Every great athlete that has raw talent needs to develop into a skill. The greatest are those that show up and shoot the most free throws in practice, hit the most foul balls, throw the most uncaught passes, kick the most unsuccessful soccer goals but they practice and they practice and they practice. Practice does not make perfect but it makes it so much better. Practice makes precision.
In 2014 I couldn’t wait. I made additional revisions and had to get my book to market. I had to make money. I had to be validated. I crashed and burned and published the first edition of what is now called, Trankarri – The Boy with a Magical Pen. Here is a picture of the first page but focus on the first paragraph. Better than the first two but sill lacking that punch, that Dragon-fire I was looking for.
With this book I got some reviews and an Indiebrag award. But I lost steam and it took everything to bring this version to market. The company I used to help with the self-publishing folded along with my data and everything else. I lost it. I had to regroup – I still had to find my voice. I decided that I would work on and finish the entire series before I published another word. I worked night and day on my craft. I read books on writing. I watched videos. I watched every J.K. Rowling interview I could get my hands on. I wanted to know about her the person and how she was able to do what she did, not in terms of sales but in terms of writing and imagination.
Then after eleven more years I published this version through Croft Regis. Here it is. It is not perfection, it is precision. It is my voice through and through. As the author I became invisible so it could be Nathaniel’s story not mine. Here it is.
Wow, do you see the difference of sixteen years from premise and first paragraph to this. The same holds true for the entire book and the entire series. It is not like the first edition was sloppy because I was lazy. I put my whole heart into the first edition in 2009. But like in landscaping, the work I did twenty years ago is not like the work I do now. I can do a landscape project ten times more beautiful in half the time because of skill. The same is true in writing or anything else. I can now write so much better in half the time because I now know my voice and my writing style and the story I am telling. I signed on for the long game and that is what I am playing.
Cheers…
