The Story Behind The Story: Reflections On Writing A Book In Quarantine

I always figured that if I were to ever write a book, I would do it once I graduated and had “more time” on my hands. If you had told me at the start of 2020 that I’d end up writing a novel this year, I wouldn’t have believed you. However, if I’ve learned anything over the past few years, it’s that God works in surprising and unexpected ways.

At the start of the year, I thought I knew exactly what 2020 was going to look like for me. I had plans to travel as well as a new summer job I was looking forward to. However those plans were all thrown out the window when we went into lockdown. At the time, I wasn’t too disappointed by having to cancel my plans but I did go through a creative writing slump. I had no desire to write and almost didn’t submit an application to my intended program specialization because of this. I was also in need of something to do aside from summer school and found myself gravitating back towards books.

For the past few years, I would read books on and off. Specifically young adult or YA novels. While I have nothing against literary classics (I’m hoping to read more at some point, feel free to message me with recommendations), there’s something special about fantasy worlds inhabited by characters figuring out who they are and their place in the world. Once we went into lockdown, I craved to read YA books again and immerse myself in stories.

During the month of May, I became invested in learning about the publishing industry. As I did more research, my desire to write as well as my desire to write stories slowly rekindled. At one point, I read about how first drafts aren’t meant to be perfect, they just need to be written. This lit a fire in me and I challenged myself to fast draft and not let my perfectionist tendencies get in the way of writing. There’s a story that’s been on my heart for the past couple of years and since it fit within the YA genre category, I figured that now was the time to write it. From there on out, I made a goal: I was going to write a first draft of 80k words (the average YA novel ranges from 70k-90k words so I figured 80k was a happy medium.)

Now I should preface this by saying that I’m terrible at committing to things. Whether it’s bible reading plans, workout schedules, or getting back into playing the piano, I struggle to commit to anything that consists of a long term goal. Also this was not the first time I’ve attempted to write this story. During my previous attempts, the furthest I ever got was 12k words. I think if it’d been a “typical year”, I wouldn't have had the same drive to see this project through to completion. However thanks to covid, my schedule was clear of any immediate obligations. And so I wrote.

During the summer, I wrote roughly 1k words a day. I wrote every day until it became a habit. I pushed myself to write a large sum of words in small increments of time. Some days the words and scenes came easily. Other days they didn’t. Still I pressed on, with the satisfaction of a higher word count being my greatest motivator to do so. It meant that I was one step closer to achieving my goal. During the many days in quarantine when it felt like I was only living for my next meal, my daily writing sprints were one of the few things I actually looked forward to. As I wrote, the prospect of drafting an entire book no longer seemed impossible. Furthermore I cultivated a deeper love for writing and stories from the time I spent drafting.

I spent the majority of my summer either binge reading YA books I’d borrowed from the library or writing until I met that day’s goal. In many ways I surprised myself with my level of commitment to this project and by the beginning of September, I was still reaching my daily word count goals. Even so I recognized that I needed to be careful to avoid burnout and so once school started up again, I decreased my daily word count. However near the beginning of October, it hit me that I hadn’t set any deadlines for myself. If I kept going at the current rate I was writing, I wouldn’t finish the draft until December. I was tempted to put it on hold until winter break but realized that by doing so, I would only be adding delays and never get around to finishing the book. So I set a hard deadline for finishing my draft: October 23rd, 2020.

Guess what? Having the deadline helped and on October 23rd, 2020, I reached my goal of completing my novel! Was it the worst thing I’ve ever written in my life? Yes. Was it amazing to know that I’d just written a full-length novel within six months? Yes! Furthermore it was incredibly rewarding to know that for once, I’d fully committed to something and saw it through to completion.

Currently, I’m working on my first round of edits. There is still a long road to go until this draft is polished and ready for querying. As I’m editing, there are many possibilities to consider. Maybe this book will be published someday. Maybe it never will be. Maybe this is just the first of five books I’ll write that won’t end with a book deal before eventually writing a sixth one that does get published. Maybe I’ll decide to self-publish or do a combination of traditional publishing and self-publishing. It’s too early to say for sure. All I can do is trust God with my writing because he’s the only one who knows for certain what will become of it. Even if this book or any others that I write never see the light of day, I’m so grateful that God used quarantine to give me the push I needed to write this one story. I learned and grew so much as a writer and even if this was all just for those two outcomes alone, the experience would still be worth it.

One of my favourite bible verses of all time is Proverbs 3:5-6. If anything, 2020 has been a huge reminder of what this verse promises. Yes, the future is uncertain. And it’s not easy to trust God amidst uncertainty. I frequently struggled to do so throughout this year. As we approach 2021, I’m left with more questions than answers as to what the new year holds in store. However God is faithful. This past year, he’s shown me more grace than I ever thought possible and more faithfulness than I could ever have towards him. Most importantly though, he’s reminded me that he is sovereign in every circumstance, and that he always works in truly unexpected ways.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways submit to him

and he will make your paths straight”

-Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV translation