Adding in Details after Writing

We’re getting close to the end of the drafting portion of my book Good … In Theory! It’s been an interesting ride over the past 5 1/2 months.

I find that the back half of writing a book presents a lot of unique challenges to me. I’m trying to wrap up a lot of different storylines, and I have to balance out keeping the story interesting and not slamming the reader with a ton of information all at once. For this book, I have to trickle in certain pieces of the story to wrap up, while also answering the mystery about the leak at the lab.

I got really excited last week writing two chapters back to back, and I found it really hard to keep myself away from my desk! The two chapters were where everything started locking into place, so Lacey and her cousin were putting pieces together one right after the other. For chapters like that, I find that I sort of info-dump and then go back and do a couple edits where I’m adding in details and drawing the story out a little bit more to make it interesting and just as colorful as the rest of the book. I do a lot of not only physical description in my writing , but also sensory things and internal things. I often mention how an emotion feels within the body, so those are pieces that I have to add in once I’ve gotten the initial arc of the action out.

Frantic writing is pretty exhilarating! But I’m at a point right now where I find myself annoyed with literally everyone and everything that takes me away from my desk, lol. Yes this includes family, friends, clients, and showers. But that’s a good thing right? When the author is excited about the book, it means that the reader will enjoy it that much more. That excitement always comes through in our writing!