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rowynDear Diary:
Today, I finished writing a novel.
A couple of people have asked where I go from here. What I just finished is the rough draft of Prophecy. It's in desperate need of revision (among other problems, it's rife with continuity errors that must be to cleaned up.)
But the very next thing I'm going to do is stop working on it. Actually, I'm not promising I won't do any more work on it. The "book" right now is scattered among 200 or so files of "chapters", and I want to put all the chapters together, in order, into one file, and do a word count on it. I stopped counting words in February or March, and I'm curious how long it's gotten. So I'll probably do that some time soon.
However, my focus for creativity in July will be "A Game of October", the online RPG whose first session will take place sometime in the second half of the month. (And I still need characters from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
koogrr and octantis for it.)
Still, some time before September, I'll come back to the draft and start cleaning it up. Some time before December 31, 2004, I will finish a "second draft" version. At this point, I will consider myself, really and truly, to have written a book. Er. Depending on how long it turns out to be, I may consider myself to have written two books by then. I set out to write a doorstopper novel and I have. The wisdom of this goal is yet to be determined. :)
The second draft will be offered up for feedback to whomever among my friends is interested in seeing it.
Depending on what sort of feedback I get and how I feel about the book personally, I may or may not do further revisions, and ultimately submit it to a publisher. I don't intend to self-publish it, either in print or on the web, so if I don't submit it to a publisher, or if it's not accepted, the world will most likely never get to see it.
I haven't decided what my plan of attack for the revision will be, or how I'm going to approach my next project.
The Master Plan(tm) served me well, in the sense that I actually did finish the *&(# draft. However, I did spend an awful lot of time resenting the yoke of it. I won't be going back to the "words per X period" system for measuring my progress. I may go back to the hours-per-month model, which was much less stressful for me when I switched to it for the first five months of this year.
But overall, I was happiest with my approach in June, which was so unstructured I can't even describe it in words. My goal was "finish it" and I didn't make any formal sub-goals or otherwise hold myself to standards of how much progress I needed to make in any given day or week. Nonetheless, I worked fairly steadily, doing a lot of writing on the weekends and occasionally some during the week, without angsting too much over it.
So in 2005, I will most likely implement that sort of approach on my next project, which will probably be "finish Silver Scales".
But for now, I'm not going to commit to anything. Instead, I'm going to bask in the glow of having finished the rough draft.
Oh, and do some laundry.
Today, I finished writing a novel.
A couple of people have asked where I go from here. What I just finished is the rough draft of Prophecy. It's in desperate need of revision (among other problems, it's rife with continuity errors that must be to cleaned up.)
But the very next thing I'm going to do is stop working on it. Actually, I'm not promising I won't do any more work on it. The "book" right now is scattered among 200 or so files of "chapters", and I want to put all the chapters together, in order, into one file, and do a word count on it. I stopped counting words in February or March, and I'm curious how long it's gotten. So I'll probably do that some time soon.
However, my focus for creativity in July will be "A Game of October", the online RPG whose first session will take place sometime in the second half of the month. (And I still need characters from
koogrr and octantis for it.)Still, some time before September, I'll come back to the draft and start cleaning it up. Some time before December 31, 2004, I will finish a "second draft" version. At this point, I will consider myself, really and truly, to have written a book. Er. Depending on how long it turns out to be, I may consider myself to have written two books by then. I set out to write a doorstopper novel and I have. The wisdom of this goal is yet to be determined. :)
The second draft will be offered up for feedback to whomever among my friends is interested in seeing it.
Depending on what sort of feedback I get and how I feel about the book personally, I may or may not do further revisions, and ultimately submit it to a publisher. I don't intend to self-publish it, either in print or on the web, so if I don't submit it to a publisher, or if it's not accepted, the world will most likely never get to see it.
I haven't decided what my plan of attack for the revision will be, or how I'm going to approach my next project.
The Master Plan(tm) served me well, in the sense that I actually did finish the *&(# draft. However, I did spend an awful lot of time resenting the yoke of it. I won't be going back to the "words per X period" system for measuring my progress. I may go back to the hours-per-month model, which was much less stressful for me when I switched to it for the first five months of this year.
But overall, I was happiest with my approach in June, which was so unstructured I can't even describe it in words. My goal was "finish it" and I didn't make any formal sub-goals or otherwise hold myself to standards of how much progress I needed to make in any given day or week. Nonetheless, I worked fairly steadily, doing a lot of writing on the weekends and occasionally some during the week, without angsting too much over it.
So in 2005, I will most likely implement that sort of approach on my next project, which will probably be "finish Silver Scales".
But for now, I'm not going to commit to anything. Instead, I'm going to bask in the glow of having finished the rough draft.
Oh, and do some laundry.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-06-29 05:40 pm (UTC)If I were closer, I'd offer you a celebratory brunch of champagne and fresh strawberries, with crumpets and devon cream. Hurmmm that sounds more like tea than brunch....
Ahh well as it is accept my hearty congrats, I can only gaze enviously and imagine how wonderful it feels. Enjoy it, bask away, you earned it!
no subject
Date: 2004-06-30 09:00 am (UTC)That sounds awfully good .... I wonder if I can get crumpets and devon cream anywhere around here? :)
no subject
Date: 2004-06-30 10:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-04 05:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-29 05:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-30 09:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-29 05:53 pm (UTC)Celebrate?
Date: 2004-06-30 09:05 am (UTC)Re: Celebrate?
Date: 2004-06-30 09:13 am (UTC)I also don't touch the novel, or don't oblige myself to do any writing, for at least a month. :)
But those are the things that work for me. Everyone has their own special rituals. Some writers take bubble baths, road trips or naps in hammocks!
no subject
Date: 2004-06-29 05:53 pm (UTC)You're going to Disney World!!!Hmmmmm...
Date: 2004-06-30 09:08 am (UTC)Re: Hmmmmm...
Date: 2004-06-30 11:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-29 06:03 pm (UTC)Speaking of men,
Sorry about being late with my character concepts, I'll get it to you ASAP!
no subject
Date: 2004-06-30 09:10 am (UTC)I'm looking forward to seeing the character concepts. :)
no subject
Date: 2004-06-29 06:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-30 09:15 am (UTC)Yay! I'm hoping to have at least six readers for the second draft. I'm not entirely sure how many volunteers I'm going to have by the time it's actually ready, though -- more is always good! :)
YAY!
Congratulations! :)
Have a Hug and a Pie! :)
Scott (Yes, I know, probably a well worded congratulatory note that touches on all your hard work and perserverance is appropriate, but plain old fashioned joy helps capture the moment too.) Kellogg
Re: YAY!
Date: 2004-06-30 09:17 am (UTC)no subject
Awesome! Bravo! :)
CYa!
Allen
Yeah
Date: 2004-06-30 12:05 am (UTC)Have the best
Re: Yeah
Date: 2004-06-30 09:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-30 09:23 am (UTC):)
Awesome!!!
Date: 2004-06-29 10:05 pm (UTC)But ...
Date: 2004-06-30 09:26 am (UTC):)
(chuckle)
Date: 2004-06-30 11:45 am (UTC)Three quarks for Mister Mark!
Date: 2004-06-29 11:30 pm (UTC)The pre-alpha of Second Contact definitely didn't: I had to cut conceptual chapters into tiny pieces. Neither does the proto-draft of Stopping the Inevitable, although the time scale makes the current best ordering of chapters "almost linear".
master documents ...
Date: 2004-06-30 09:38 am (UTC)Still, thanks for letting me know! I'll look into it. Cutting-and-pasting is certainly a big pain. :P
Re: master documents ...
Date: 2004-07-01 08:53 am (UTC)I'm on OpenOffice.org. The recent versions can export to PDF (which at least has a free viewer on Windows/Mac/Linux).
Ask a Stupid Question
Date: 2004-06-30 05:31 am (UTC)I've never seen any meta-data about Prophesy. Do you have a book-cover synopsis to share?
Still Rampant,
-- BarbX
Great art is as irrational as great music. It is mad with its own loveliness.
--George Jean Nathan
***** END MESSAGE *****
Re: Ask a Stupid Question
Date: 2004-06-30 08:45 am (UTC)Some people want to rule the world. Mariel Sunfire just wants to destroy it.
Or:
A barmaid. A nightwatchman. An old priest. Can they stop a woman destinied to destroy the world?
...
Probably not.
I should give this more serious consideration if I'm going to try to sell this book. :)
Re: Ask a Stupid Question
Date: 2004-06-30 12:46 pm (UTC)A barmaid, a night watchman, an old priest. And a woman who just wants to destroy the world. Is that so bad?
Re: Ask a Stupid Question
Date: 2004-06-30 12:45 pm (UTC)WAHOOOOOO!!!
Date: 2004-06-30 11:38 am (UTC)See? You're giving people HOPE! ;D (And a good read.)
no subject
Date: 2004-06-30 12:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-30 02:51 pm (UTC)Victory is declared
Date: 2004-06-30 04:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-07-05 01:29 pm (UTC)>The "book" right now is scattered among 200 or so files
>of "chapters", and I want to put all the chapters together, in order,
>into one file, and do a word count on it.
Good luck with that. My first novel(la) existed solely in hardcopy, which was really stupid of me, since now I can't find most of it. But it wasn't that good anyway, so I haven't lost too much sleep over it.
Oh, and I would be honored if you would allow me to read at least part of your 2nd draft.
As for the back cover blurb, do they actually let you write that part? I always assumed that was done by marketing. (At least, some of the crapy copy I've read on the backs of some otherwise great books have lead me to believe so.)