Today, author Aden Polydoros joins us to talk about his writing process for Project Pandora and how he went from the seed of an idea to a ready-to-be-published book.
Please give Aden a warm Thinking to Inking welcome, and make sure to scroll to the bottom of the post for a chance to win a Project Pandora prize pack + an Amazon giftcard!
Here’s the thing about my writing process. I don’t make outlines before I begin writing. I’ll outline the setting for a particular scene, but I don’t outline the plot. I’ll write down ideas I have at the top of the manuscript, or maybe jolt down a note about where this story might go, but that’s about it. I’m a total pantser because that’s what works for me. If I have to write off an outline, all of a sudden, the writing process begins feeling restrictive. On the upside, I end up surprising myself halfway through the story when the plot does a complete 180. On the downside, I usually have the delete some of my writing.
I don’t write in chronological order either. I may have a scene in my head that I have to get down, and that’s the one I’ll be working on, even if it’s at the end of the book and I’ve only completed the first five chapters. In the first draft, I’ll have up to seventy scenes anywhere from 100 to 3000 words long, which I’ll eventually rearrange into a cohesive story.
I decided to write 1,000 words a day. I had tried NaNoWriMo before and had failed to fulfill the 1,500 word-a-day goal, so 1,000 words seemed like a nice, doable number. Of course, there were some days when I wrote less. There were days when I wrote nothing at all and felt so frustrated with the book, I wanted to throw my laptop into a dumpster. As appealing as that thought was, I forced myself to keep writing.
After several months, I finished the first draft of my manuscript. It was 60,000 words long, and what I could best describe as a “hot mess.” I allowed it to sit for a couple weeks as I began work on a different story, then began revisions.
Before I even started revising the story, I printed it out and read through it. I made notes of things that needed to be changed, areas where the writing was weak or too telly, and scenes I didn’t like. I cut out 8,000 more words, then added another 13,000, bringing the total word count to 65,000.
That wasn’t the end of it. Once I signed a deal with Entangled Teen and began editor-advised edits, I became immersed in several more rounds of revisions. Having an editing letter makes the revision process easier because I know what I need to work on, but at the same time, it’s also more difficult because I have to make specific changes that I might not agree 100% with. I tend to approach the editing process the same way in either case; I sit down, I read through the manuscript and note places where I can make revisions, and then I work on them. I use the Track Changes and Add Comment features in Word to make notes to myself and compare different versions of the same sentence. I made a goal to revise one chapter a day and write 1,000 words, and over the course of a month, added another 40,000 to the novel’s word count. It’s just as difficult to stay motivated during the revision process as it is during the initial writing process, but what kept me going was imagining the fanart that people might eventually do of my characters. I know that sounds silly, but I love looking at fanart for my favorite shows and books, and the thought that someone might actually want to draw my characters makes me smile.
Thanks so much for joining us Aden! Can't wait to get my hands on Project Pandora!
About Project Pandora:
Project Pandora (Assassin Fall #1)
by Aden Polydoros
Publication Date:
August 1, 2017
Publisher:
Entangled Teen
Tyler Bennett trusts no one. Just another foster kid bounced
from home to home, he’s learned that lesson the hard way. Cue world’s tiniest
violin. But when strange things start happening—waking up with bloody knuckles
and no memory of the night before or the burner phone he can’t let out of his
sight— Tyler starts to wonder if he can even trust himself.
Even stranger, the girl he’s falling for has a burner phone
just like his. Finding out what’s really happening only leads to more
questions…questions that could get them both killed. It’s not like someone’s
kidnapping teens lost in the system and brainwashing them to be assassins or
anything, right? And what happens to rogue assets who defy control?
In a race against the clock, they’ll have to uncover the
truth behind Project Pandora and take it down—before they’re reactivated. Good
thing the program spent millions training them to kick ass...
About Aden Polydoros
Aden Polydoros grew up in Long Grove, Illinois, the youngest
of three children. Aden’s family
moved to Arizona when he was in second grade.
As a kid, he spent much of his time exploring the desert near his home. When he
wasn’t searching for snakes and lizards, he was raiding the bookshelves of the
local library. As a teenager, Aden decided that he wanted to be a writer. He
spent his free time writing short stories. He was encouraged by his English
teacher to try his hand at writing a novel, which inspired him to begin PROJECT
PANDORA. The YA thriller is set for publication with Entangled Publishing in
Summer of 2017. He is represented by Mallory Brown of Triada US.
Giveaway!
Project
Pandora Prize Pack (US) or a $10 Amazon Gift card (INT)
I supposed in a fictional world, I would turn my assassin skills on them, but in the real world, I'd use my skills to mask my identity and find new places to live.
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