Constructing My Story

There are multiple steps in constructing a good, cohesive book. The first step? Write the book. Yeah, I know, easier said than done. But there are many ways to write and finish a book. For those who can't seem to make time to sit down and write, set yourself a word goal for the day. Whether it's one thousand or one hundred words a day, make sure you sit down every day and reach it. Maybe that involves staying up past midnight, or waking up at the crack of dawn, but if you want to write and finish a book, that's what you're going to have to do. Make time.
There are also those who have such wonderful ideas in their heads and can't seem to get them down right on paper. Whatever comes out, just write it! This is only your first draft, after all, and the only person this has to make sense to is you. Just keep pounding out those ideas. Or, if writing a terrible first draft doesn't suit you, make a plan. Carry a journal and a pen with you everywhere, and when one of those wonderful ideas hits you, take out that journal and write it down. Even if it's in the middle of the grocery store. Or wherever you happen to be. Plan your novel before writing it with those ideas in your journal, but be warned--give yourself a certain amount of time for planning, or you'll spend the rest of your life planning it.
Now you've started your novel, and you're halfway done with it. Then you get stuck and bored with it. "Nobody is ever going to read this," you think, or, "Why am I even bothering?" Keep plowing through. Everyone has those doubts. Overcome them, and keep writing. You can take your book apart later. Right now, the most important thing is getting through your slump and getting it done. Or, if you can't overcome this hump, set it aside for a few days. But make sure that when you put it aside that you will come back to it, or the dust will settle over your poor story and it will remain unfinished for all eternity. And you wouldn't want that to happen, would you?
Congratulations! You've finished your novel! Aren't you proud? Don't you just want to wave it to the world, show it to your family, send it in to publishers?
Don't.
This is only your first draft, after all. And unless you are really brave, you're in for a world of hurt, especially if your family is critical. There will be typos, there will be inconsistencies, and there will be pain. Put the book aside for a few months, maybe even write in another (that's what I do) while you let the rose-colored glasses slowly fade away.
Then comes my favorite (not) part; rewriting. Once you realize your book is not your baby and that it certainly isn't as good as you remember it being, it is time to rewrite the whole thing. In my case, I ripped it apart. I changed names, I took out parts, I changed the story, I even extended one part to just one whole book. Don't rush the rewrite. Take your time, really consider which parts you like and what you really don't like, and decide what might not be best. This is your book, after all, and you want it to be the best it can be.
The rewrite is done! We're good now, right? We can publish it!
Eh, no.
You've rewritten your book, torn it apart, changed everything (or maybe not much, depending on what you're like) and have a story that doesn't much resemble what it started out as. What you do now is edit it. Read through it again, looking for typos, grammar problems, and inconsistencies.  Then, when you've gone through it once, do it again, in a different format preferably. You can email it to yourself, or publish it to Kindle, buy it, and apply whatever edits you find while reading it in that format. (I'd recommend doing the Kindle option on your third edit.)
Now, you can edit until the cows come home, but I think there's such a thing as too much editing. I edited the Crown of Colnia: Rise of the Warlocks six times before I decided enough is enough and just went with it. Otherwise, you'll just keep editing it and not doing anything with it.
And that's about all the advice I can give you on constructing your book. Tune in to my blog tomorrow for an excerpt from one of my novels, Rachel Andric and The Story.