Writing the First Draft - You Don't Always Have to Type It.

By Cassanda Samuels

Writing a book is hard. It takes many months, sometimes years, to complete even a first draft, but my guest authors today have found that you don't always have to type your first draft.

Anna Campbell is an award winning author of Historical Romance. She writes her first drafts longhand, but it hadn't always been that way. Here is why she chooses longhand over typing:

"In 2014, a lot of things happened. I had the house on the market, I’d decided to make a real attempt
at having a career as an indie author, and I had a dreadful accident. I fell over in the kitchen in the
middle of the night and injured my left arm and as a result had trouble typing for about 18 months.

Necessity meant that I had to go back to doing first drafts longhand because I really had only one
hand working at full capacity and this ended up being one of those decisions about making the
best of adverse circumstances that turned out to be a wonderful opportunity.

When I’d dreamed of being a writer as a child and teenager, of course I wrote longhand. This was
back in the dark ages before every house had at least one computer. Returning to writing longhand
took me back to the time when writing was fun and full of dreams and hope, whereas writing on a
screen seemed (and still seems) like a job. First drafts stopped being a horrible experience (I still edit on the computer. That really IS a much better option) and went back to me telling myself a story. Even better, I could write longhand anywhere. In the backyard, in bed, on the sofa, at a café. Not only that but my really rough first drafts became less rough, I think because writing longhand is a slower process so you have time to think about what you’re putting down (one of the downsides of being a really fast typist is that any old rubbish goes down on the page). So the editing process ended up being easier as well.

I still have to type the manuscript into the computer,but that has the advantage of letting me do a
rough first edit. I’m investigating dictation programs so that I can just read my manuscript into the
computer. I’m definitely sticking to longhand first drafts. That’s given my writing a whole new lease on life."

Anna's latest book is available now.

Buy here

Lord Garson’s dilemma.
Hugh Rutherford, Lord Garson, loved and lost when his fiancée returned to the husband she’d believed drowned. In the three years since, Garson has come to loathe his notoriety as London’s most famous rejected suitor. It’s high time to find a bride, a level-headed, well-bred lady who will accept a loveless marriage and cause no trouble. Luckily he has just the candidate in mind.
A marriage of convenience…
When Lady Jane Norris receives an unexpected proposal from her childhood friend Lord Garson, marriage to the handsome baron rescues her from a grim future. At twenty-eight, Jane is on the shelf and under no illusions about her attractions. With her father’s death, she’s lost her home and faces life as an impecunious spinster. While she’s aware Garson will never love again, they have friendship and goodwill to build upon. What can possibly go wrong?
…becomes very inconvenient indeed
From the first, things don’t go to plan, not least because Garson soon finds himself in thrall to his surprisingly intriguing bride. A union grounded in duty veers toward obsession. And when the Dashing Widows take Jane in hand and transform her into the toast of London, Garson isn’t the only man to notice his wife’s beauty and charm. He’s known Jane all her life, but suddenly she’s a dazzling stranger. This isn’t the uncomplicated, pragmatic match he signed up for. When Jane defies the final taboo and asks for his love, her impossible demand threatens to blast this convenient marriage to oblivion.
Once the dust settles, will Lord Garson still be the man who can only love once?

Louise Forster  is a best selling author of contemporary and small town romance and uses Dragon Naturally speaking. This is what she says about it:

"For me, Dragon Naturally Speaking, is brilliant. I researched to find the best dictate program, and Dragon kept coming up with great reviews. About 15+ years ago my sister in-law used it after a shoulder operation. I watched her train the program to recognize her voice, and nuances, and even back then it wasn’t too bad.

To have some fun, I suggested she say f**k into the mic. She surprised me by giving it her best shot. The program wasn’t into cursing and came up with all sorts of weird and wonderful words: flock, duck, suck, fluck, pluck. I figured they would’ve improved their program, so I bought Dragon Naturally Speaking 13 Premium. (Premium, because it was on sale). I haven’t had it long, but I like it, and it works for me. Issues with my body forced me to take this path.

The wrong words are highlighted in yellow, the correct in blue/turquoise.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking takes a little training, but it does this as you work and went when you close off. I haven’t tried this program while putting together a first draft, but I can imagine that it would be pretty good. For me, the problem lies with thinking and speaking two different things; I can't speak a sentence while thinking they had our head ahead on the next one. A friend said I could train my brain to work that out in the creative sense.

If you want a quote symbol you simply say open single quote and close single quote. For double quote marks it’s open quote and close quote. If it won’t accept a word simply say spell and a window appears where you can choose or type in the correction.

Editing is a little tricky, for example after highlighting what you want to take out and saying delete, you have to remember to only say the word, or words you want to put in, and not the rest of the sentence, thereby doubling up. I learnt that one pretty quickly."

Louise has a brand new book out on the 4th of May that is available now for pre-order.

Buy here

 In the small town of Tumble Creek, secrets aren’t kept for long...

From the outside, Adele Valentin knows she looks strong, capable, unflappable. But when she loses everything, she can only think of one thing to do: run. A friend’s house in the small rural town of Tumble Creek is a ready-made sanctuary, and Adele flees the big city without ever looking back.

The timing has never been right for Takumi Edwards to express his feelings for Adele, the beautiful, mysterious woman who visits occasionally but haunts his dreams nightly. But now she’s here to stay – at least for a while – and he will never have a better chance.

But Adele is struggling with both past decisions and how vulnerable Takumi makes her feel. When her past follows her to Tumble Creek, Takumi is the only one who can help resolve both what came before and what could be ahead. If Adele is only strong enough to ask.

Have you or anyone you know used a different way to get down that first draft?

Love to love: Finishing edits on my next book.

Love to laugh: At the weird things my cat Angus does. He always keeps me entertained.

Love to learn: about the way my fellow authors create.