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Renovating a kitchen is a lot like writing a novel

Our kitchen will not be like this. Our kitchen is tiny. We don’t have the room to to put anything in the middle of the kitchen.

As you can see from the title, we’re in the middle of renovating our kitchen.  We’re also in the middle of writing a novel.  The process has similarities.

What a great idea

You go in with nothing but your imagination.  You have this great idea, and because nothing is real yet, you know this is going to be the best book/kitchen ever.

The reality of the synopsis

Because we’re writing to contract now, the synopsis comes before the book.  It sells the book.

Likewise, the design sells the kitchen.

Even so, what’s on the page is only an outline of what’s to come.

Signing the contract

We’ve agreed to this. It’s real. Have we done the right thing?

Day one

The first chapter.  It’s basic. It’s rough, but it’s done.  The novel shows promise.

Day one of a kitchen renovation is demolition. The bones of the kitchen look old and grotty, but it’s going to look better.  You know it will.

The first draft

The cabinets go in. It looks … ordinary. Not much different from what you had before. You wonder if you did the right thing.

The first draft of your novel is rough. It’s the bare outline.  It’s a mess in places. You wonder how you’ll be able to pull it together.

Subsequent drafts

In the kitchen the doors of the cabinets go on. The stove goes in. The sink.  A plumber arrives and you have a sink and a working dishwasher. An electrician arrives and you have lights that work. A plasterer comes and adds architraves. A painter comes.

It’s starting to show promise.

Each draft of the novel improves it. You submit your novel.  Your editor and agent get help you to improve it.

The wow factor

The novel is edited. It gets a cover. It turns into a book.  Wow.

Our kitchen hasn’t got its wow factor yet, but we already know it will be the splashback.  (Either that or it will be an epic fail.)

It’s like a book. We won’t know the end product until we get there.

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