Writing in Reverse

Off to a Better Start

The summer I finished my first book was incredibly busy for me.  There was so much going on for me during those few months.  I got my first job cutting my neighbors lawn - which I guess wasn't a real job but it sure paid better than most for kids with a job my age.  I got a my first car, went to a number of exciting places, and managed to lose some more weight (something I've been at for a number of years prior too).  With all of this, I knew I was incredibly lucky to experience all that in one summer.  However, among my biggest accomplishments was that I finished my first book.  There was something better than finishing my book though: starting something new and that was my second book.

After I posted the author's note for Island Rush, I said I was going back to my first story I came up with on here - Handcuffed Love - and finishing that like I had intended this whole time.  I told my readers that I could get back to writing within a few weeks or next month sometime.  I said this because I knew I should try to get organized with this since I knew it would be more complicated than Island Rush.  Not to mention, I was starting fresh despite already having about seven chapters up for nearly a year until I could get back to it. 

However, even though I said it would be a while until I get going on Handcuffed Love, I found that I couldn't stay away that long.  Sure, I wanted to get organized.  I tried making an outline and it worked for the most part.  But there was only so much I could take without actually writing the book.  So I started posting it no more than two weeks after I finished Island Rush just because I couldn't help but not to.  It was then that my true addiction to writing started to show like it had in the past.  It made me feel like with the need to write like that, I could maybe make it far in writing.

Restarting Handcuffed Love wasn't too much of a challenge.  I made a list of all the things I realized I did wrong in Island Rush and was determined not to repeat those things in this book.  I needed this story to be so much more better - with a better plot, characters, and a better way to write.  I knew it could happen; the story itself was compelling enough.  I just needed to express it in the right way.

I started by going back through the seven chapters already up and adding to it, putting in much more detail, and changing a lot too.  It got to the point where I actually would just rewrite everything and for some things I wanted to keep, I pasted it back in.  I didn't want to keep what was already up though for the most part because what was posted were some of the first chapters I put up on Wattpad, over a year prior.  And those first chapters ever up... they were messy in comparison to where I was then after a year of experience through Island Rush.  So I rewrote it for the most part but it was the same plot, some scenes as before.  Just better, more detailed.  Not to mention, after a year of quietly pondering over this story in the back of my head, I had new ideas.  I was excited to express them and add them in.

The plot of the story was something very unique and I knew it was much better than the last.  That's why I was happy I did Island Rush first.  It didn't have as much potential as Handcuffed Love and that's what I needed, especially when just starting out writing and doing it in a sloppy manner.  I wouldn't do the same for a story I knew was too good for me to mess up on. 

I tried keeping with the outline - I really did.  I tried hard but it just wasn't working.  My mind went in too many directions for me to keep up with it in the guide so I just put it aside, knowing I was doing fine without it for a while.  The only risky part was me not knowing where this was leading at first.  I had ideas, knowing the directions some concepts of the story would take but it was too broad.  I was just lucky it all hit me later on where it all needed to go.  Because at first, Handcuffed Love was just going to be one book and not a series.

I noticed something quick when starting this story.  And that was how much more fun it was to write through Albany's point of view.  I knew I wanted her to be a strong character.  But once getting back and focusing on this after a year, I knew I needed to do better than that.  In Island Rush, one of my mistakes I think was the lack of development Janice and Casey's characters received.  There was nothing unique about them, nothing that made them stand out, and they just seemed average, even if they were down to Earth.  It wasn't realistic enough for the fact that people are very very complex.  And because of that, it's suppose to be a complex process of creating characters.  So I jumped in by getting inside of what I wanted to be the character of Albany more specifically.