Writing in Reverse

Mistakes

Island Rush was the first book I finished.  I liked a lot of what I was able to express through the book and I thought it was a nice start with discovering my writing style.  I also felt very accomplished for the fact that not many 15 year olds wrote a novel before in the way I had since it was the longest one I know of on Wattpad. It took so much time and dedication from me to do this and I was happy I was able to finish it.

That being said, though I felt accomplished, going back and rereading what I wrote... well, it wasn't as I thought it was. In other words, Island Rush was a train wreck to be honest.  I looked at Island Rush for the longest time as a story I would enjoy reading - and I would.  I would enjoy reading a story like that.  However, realizing my mistakes now, I wish I wrote it a little differently.

One being obvious: the constant repeating.  I mean, I knew I repeated some topics or more detailed ideas more than once but once going through countless chapters and finding that nearly everything was just a drag of Janice explaining something in an alternative way, I knew that was a turn off.  Not only that, I'm sure I only made it even more confusing for the reader to understand what was happening when explaining something complex in a number of different ways - so my readers would know what I was talking about.  But that was a mistake for one, because it spent too much time explaining something.  For example, building the shelter.  It was a simple structure but it was hard to explain.  So I went in depth on everything they were doing then I would remind the readers again of what they were trying to do.  I would try anything that would make the readers understand and that was wrong because I realized something. That the less words used in a case like that would be more helpful.  If you are writing a scene about something complex, you shouldn't make even more complex by over explaining it. 

Another reason though that constantly repeating was a mistake was because I was worrying too much of what the readers were taking out of it.  I wanted to make something a certain way and to do that, to show exactly what I was picturing to the readers, it required detail and repeating it over until the same thing was in their head.  And it was wrong because I was concerned over the reader whereas I should have just focused on the story and not getting off track as much as I had.  Skimming through the book, if I wanted to edit out all the repeating and extra paragraphs that were unneeded, that would be about every chapter.

Another issue I found with the book was how many elements were just wrong, as a lot of readers enjoyed pointing out.  Most was at the beginning though.  Because at that point, I knew I had to get them on the island.  I didn't know how in a realistic way besides the class going on a trip.  However, if you were to actually look at a possible flight path to France, you would see that if they did crash, it would be on an island that wasn't as 'tropical' as it was.  I'm not stupid.  I don't need a geography lesson as someone pointed out.  I knew that if they did crash in the place they did, they wouldn't have coincidentally found an island to swim to and live off of the fruit it grew there.  I knew that.  But I didn't care at the time because I was just starting out.  I was just trying to get them to where I wanted them.

Now, clearly I try very hard to make it realistic in my story.  But some things could have been a little more realistic.  First, like I said, them actually crashing (on a commercial flight) then actually getting stranded.  It was a stretch because commercial flights don't really crash like that.  Also the fact that Janice's bag just so happen to float ashore as well after the crash. That was stretching it and I knew it.  Not to mention how unrealistic it was when Casey got sick.  No plane in sight for how many months then at the last minute one shows up, just before he is ready to die?  Yes, unrealistic and I know that.  But it needed to happen so everything else besides those things could be realistic.  I wanted them to get stuck there, they needed some form of supplies, and I wanted them to get rescued. I probably could have done it though in a less obvious manner through more realistic elements than I had.