THE ONE: The desks I’ve used while writing this novella.
A brief peak at *most* of the desks I've written or edited THE ONE at.
I’ve been working on THE ONE for seven years now, and in that time, Seth and I have moved at least ten times (if you don’t count every time we’ve moved the camper to a new location). Which might partially explain why this work has taken me so long. Here’s a behind the scene peek at most of the places I’ve written or edited THE ONE at, in order I think:
Starting at our apartment in Denver (I don’t know where my pictures of my freshman year at CCU ended up) where the first round of revisions happened, and ending at the house we stayed in at Lake Bronson, MN. In between there were two campers that we lived in and our stays at both sets of parents houses as well as our friends’ house in Denver. I think that’s 13+ different work spaces?
As my work space has stabilized (staying in one location longer and/or having a designated work area), I’ve noticed that it’s easier to be more productive in my writing. And that may also be due to the fact that carving out a work area and designated work hours are in line with growing my writing experience. All that to say, the process through which I wrote THE ONE was excessively long and inefficient. And I’m not planning on having every book I write take seven-ish years from idea to publication. Although the next work of fiction coming out was an idea I had in high school, drafted in college, and let sit on the back-burner until recently. So I guess that one took as long? Maybe every work will take years…
I will say this, though, the version of Alex that began writing THE ONE at eighteen as a freshman in college didn’t have the life or writing experience to write this novella the way it needed to be written. And it was so frustrating. I knew what I wanted THE ONE to accomplish, and I knew at the end of my semester-long Advanced Creative Writing: Fiction course that it missed the mark. I chalked that up to not being cut-out to write novels like middle school Alex had dreamed of and tried to forget about what I viewed as a failed experiment. I handed in my manuscript and didn’t take my professor up on the offer of picking it up in the Fall to look at her notes. In fact, I didn’t even look at the overall grade I got in that class until I was planning for graduation and wanted to make sure I had passed it.
Eventually, I dug it out and did a round of major revisions. Then I didn’t like it anymore and the cycle repeated. Lock it away and forget about it, move on, remember and do a complete overhaul, then repeat from the beginning. THE ONE has gone through at least seven major revisions, and I think each time I’ve changed the POV. I’ve written whole chapters that I later cut out. Writing this novella has been a painful process, but I have learned so much about myself and my writing style, that it has been worth it. And that’s part of what eighteen year old Alex didn’t know. There’s a process. I thought anyone with an idea and a grasp of written language could write a book, and while they can it doesn’t mean the book is going to turn out ready for print the first try. There are drafts, revisions, edits, nit-pickyness. It’s exhausting. At some point, that has to stop and you have to be done. And for THE ONE, that whole process took seven years. Seven iterations of THE ONE. Seven iterations of Alex.
It is so crazy to see THE ONE in print now, because there were several times where I was convinced it wouldn’t happen. I’m so glad I took my time, and I see THE ONE in a similar light to Aesthetic Blindness, a baby step. Aesthetic Blindness is a micro-chapbook, THE ONE is a micro-novel. Testing the water. Learning the tricks of the trade. Figuring out that this: writing and publishing, is what I want to do. What I was meant to be doing. And I’m so excited to move into our house, because I have an office the size of the camper’s livable space to use for writing, editing, and publishing!