Aaaaand I'm finally done with my first draft!
My second draft should be finished soon, because I've been working through it only a few chapters behind my first. Then my third and fourth will take a bit more time.
I am ready to be channeling my writing energy in a different direction for a while.
In addition to revising like mad now, I have a short story idea I want to find time to work on.
Great All-Star Game Tonight. As with my novel, though, I'm ready for it to be over. ;)
I leave tomorrow for ReaderCon by way of New York. Yay Spirit Airlines! I'll also be taking in a Yankees game on Monday (IIRC), so I get to say my own goodbye to The Stadium.
You know, the difference in polish between my epilogue and my opening is staggering. God I hope I can bring the beginning up to the level of the end. I learned so much through the writing of this, my second novel. I think this one will be good enough by the time I'm done with it to be publishable, as opposed to my first novel, which shall never see the light of day. Even if it doesn't find a home, though, I've learned enough to make the process worthwhile. I can't wait to begin the next one. Okay, that's a lie. I can wait. But I do have a rough idea and I'm excited to begin the process again.
First, though, I've got to chop Vanishing Act down by 20,000 words or so. At least.
8 comments:
Congratulations, your novel sounds really interesting, like something which would have been my favorite book in sixth grade. Of course, I suppose finishing first draft is just the end of the beginning, but the beginning is the hardest part. I hope that's true, anyway (I'm still in the beginning of the beginning myself).
Thanks!
What kind of writing do you do?
I'm a sometimes poet and would-be novelist. I'm working on a novel now, with any luck, I'll be where you now are in four years or so.
I hope you don't waste as many years as I did being lukewarm. Presupposing that you have talent and creativity, I'm coming to the conclusion that the only thing that separates the people who eventually get published from the ones that don't is drive, sticktoitiveness, etc. I hope you're writing every week, at least.
I don't feel too badly, because I have life experience now that I lacked before, but still, I could have been honing my craft all that time.
I hope it's not too presumptuous of me to say this to you. It's just that I wish I could go back in time and show my self of ten, fifteen, twenty years ago the kind of commitment I have now, and the dividends it has already paid. But I can't, so the next best thing might be to give someone else that nudge. (I'm not saying you need it; I'm just saying why I'm motivated to babble.)
Any particular genre?
Well, you could call it a "buddy novel," or a "campus novel." Personally, I prefer to call it a "novel of religious awakening." I deals with two close friends who teach at a high school, one of whom is an observant, although liberal, Jew and the other of whom (the narrator) is a lapsed Christian/agnostic. It's a bit low on plot, by which I mean there really isn't any. Structure yes. Character arc, yes. (I've plotted these out). Plot, not really.
Well, if you're interested, here's a good blog post by literary agent Nathan Bransford on plot, and here's another one on how plot and character intersect. It's not the end-all and be-all, but I found that first one particularly useful for coalescing my own thoughts.
Thanks
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