by Christy Barritt, @christybarritt
Recently, my husband and I bought an investment property on the water, a place with beautiful sunsets, a sandy beach, and tons of potential. The house had a great location, but the insides hadn’t been updated in twenty years—and it showed. Over the winter, when rental season was on pause, we decided to fix the house up to make it more inviting.
Image by Thanks for your Like • donations welcome from Pixabay
As I was working on the renovations, I realized that I restore houses much like I write. Here are some tips that I wanted to share with you, in case you’re looking for a new method to revitalize your writing process.
- I start with the big picture. Instead of going room by room as I renovated, I knocked out the big items first. For me, this meant laying the groundwork (the new floors!) and establishing the space (painting the walls).
I do this when I’m writing also. I don’t go in and fine-tune details at the beginning of the process. No, I try to write a skeletal first draft to make sure the foundation of my story is in place. I need to know the story basis is valid before I invest time in writing the rest of the book.
- After the walls and floors were done, I moved on to the big furniture items. I ordered mattresses, beds, couches, chairs, and beds. I needed to have them in place to get a better idea of what I needed to do next. The picture, at this point, was beginning to take shape but still had farther to go.
In writing, this is the part of the process where I go back through that skeletal first draft I’ve written, and I make sure everything major is in place. I check subplots to make sure they fit (or I add them!). I make sure the shape of the story is coming together the way I envision. I check for any plot areas that sag or slow down the story, and I fix them.
- I then purchased my bed spreads, shower curtains, rugs, and curtains. These items really start to bring the rooms to life and to add personality to the space.
In book terms, this is when I go back into my novels and layer in my description—of setting, of characters, of food, smell, and other sensory items. This is where the book really starts to come to life.
- Finally, I accessorized the space. This was really where everything comes together. It’s those small details that add the finishing touch. It’s the pictures and the knickknacks that make the space feel homey and welcoming—that makes it picture-worthy and ready for advertising.
When I’m writing a book, this is the phase where I clean up any mistakes in my writing, take a closer look at my word choices, doublecheck all my facts, and do one finally read through to make sure it everything is where it should be and no details have been forgotten. After this, it’s ready for the next step—going to my beta readers, then editors, then proofers, and then publication!
You can take the detective out of the investigation, but you can’t take the investigator out of the detective.
A notorious gang puts a bounty on Detective Cady Matthews’s head after she takes down their leader, leaving her no choice but to hide until she can testify at trial. But her temporary home across the country on a remote North Carolina island isn’t as peaceful as she initially thinks.
Living under the new identity of Cassidy Livingston, she struggles to keep her investigative skills tucked away, especially after a body washes ashore. When local police bungle the murder investigation, she can’t resist stepping in. But Cassidy is supposed to be keeping a low profile. One wrong move could lead to both her discovery and her demise.
Can she bring justice to the island . . . or will the hidden currents surrounding her pull her under for good?
Christy Barritt
USA Today has called Christy Barritt’s books “scary, funny, passionate, and quirky.”
A Publishers Weekly bestseller, Christy writes both mystery and romantic suspense novels that are clean with underlying messages of faith. Her book, Hazardous Duty, is currently being made into a movie, and her Worst Detective Ever series has been optioned for film.
Christy spent six weeks straight as the #1 author on Amazon in the Religion and Spirituality category, and she’s sold more than 1.4 million copies of her novels. Her books have won the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Suspense and Mystery, have been twice nominated for the Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award, and have finaled for both a Carol Award and Foreword Magazine’s Book of the Year.
She’s married to her prince charming, a man who thinks she’s hilarious—but only when she’s not trying to be. Christy’s a self-proclaimed klutz, an avid music lover who’s known for spontaneously bursting into song, and a road trip aficionado.
Christy currently splits her time between the Virginia suburbs and Hatteras Island, North Carolina.
For more information, visit her website: www.christybarritt.com.
Comments 1
This is great, Christy! As a life-long renovator (my house is 102 years old), I can definitely see the connection!