Danny Boogs's Blog
August 19, 2018
How I Wrote My First Book
The Game: It's All Fantasy. Really.
Sometimes, when I'm sleeping, I imagine people have actually read my first book, "The Game: It's All Fantasy. Really." I like to imagine those people want to know how I wrote it.
This is the story I would tell those people.
One day, many days ago, my wife left me on a little island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean for a month. This little island did not have very good internet, so I couldn't watch Netflix, and I had already finished reading all the books we owned. So I said to myself, "Hey, you should write a book."
I was quite drunk at the time.
And so I sat down and thought, "Okay, how do the truly great writers do this?" I've never taken more than a "How to Write a Resume" writing class, so I like to assume the greats have an idea in their head, sculpt out some killer plot lines, draw up some in-depth characters, and then, once they have it all ready to go, begin the process of actually writing. THEN they get drunk and, if they're from the 1800s, kill themselves.
That sounded like a lot of work. I decided the best way for me to do this was to just start writing. The only question I had was, what should this book be about? I felt confident that it should be about something I was familiar with, so I started scouring Wikipedia for things that fit my criteria. Then I watched some Youtube clips of soldiers coming home to their dogs. It made me teary eyed, and I thought, that's it. I know exactly what to write about.
Fantasy football and religion.
Thus, was the trilogy of The Game born.
I began writing that very day. I had no idea what I was writing, or where I was going with any of it. I just knew the general concept should be satirical, which I was (and still am) fairly confident is a real word. The next thing I knew, I was 30 pages in. I finished the first draft in two weeks and showed it to a friend. I had no idea that I would later (self) publish this book, and I definitely had no idea it would do so well. I mean, almost TEN PEOPLE including my entire family have read it, and it's only been available for over a month. If that's not success, then I'm a miserable failure.
So, yes, I wrote my first book in two weeks, and finished the editing process in another two weeks. After that, I re-read it, figured out the plot, refined no characters, and hit the great big "Publish" button on Amazon.
Then I began working on part two, which took me another two weeks to write.
But more on that later.
Sometimes, when I'm sleeping, I imagine people have actually read my first book, "The Game: It's All Fantasy. Really." I like to imagine those people want to know how I wrote it. This is the story I would tell those people.
One day, many days ago, my wife left me on a little island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean for a month. This little island did not have very good internet, so I couldn't watch Netflix, and I had already finished reading all the books we owned. So I said to myself, "Hey, you should write a book."
I was quite drunk at the time.
And so I sat down and thought, "Okay, how do the truly great writers do this?" I've never taken more than a "How to Write a Resume" writing class, so I like to assume the greats have an idea in their head, sculpt out some killer plot lines, draw up some in-depth characters, and then, once they have it all ready to go, begin the process of actually writing. THEN they get drunk and, if they're from the 1800s, kill themselves.
That sounded like a lot of work. I decided the best way for me to do this was to just start writing. The only question I had was, what should this book be about? I felt confident that it should be about something I was familiar with, so I started scouring Wikipedia for things that fit my criteria. Then I watched some Youtube clips of soldiers coming home to their dogs. It made me teary eyed, and I thought, that's it. I know exactly what to write about.
Fantasy football and religion.
Thus, was the trilogy of The Game born.
I began writing that very day. I had no idea what I was writing, or where I was going with any of it. I just knew the general concept should be satirical, which I was (and still am) fairly confident is a real word. The next thing I knew, I was 30 pages in. I finished the first draft in two weeks and showed it to a friend. I had no idea that I would later (self) publish this book, and I definitely had no idea it would do so well. I mean, almost TEN PEOPLE including my entire family have read it, and it's only been available for over a month. If that's not success, then I'm a miserable failure.
So, yes, I wrote my first book in two weeks, and finished the editing process in another two weeks. After that, I re-read it, figured out the plot, refined no characters, and hit the great big "Publish" button on Amazon.
Then I began working on part two, which took me another two weeks to write.
But more on that later.
