Friday, July 8, 2011

Letting the Novel Take Over

One and a half more chapters, and my new novel's first draft will be done. Interestingly, the light at the end of the tunnel is not bringing me relief, but a sense of responsibility that I'm trying to keep from becoming panic.

Suddenly I am drowning in work. I do edit previous chapters as I write new ones, so the task could be even scarier. But I've promised my beta readers the first ten-chapter chunk next week, so that's another round of edits. And as I prep for beta, I'm making my chapter-by-chapter synopsis and my style sheet of invented terms and concepts so that I (and a publisher) can be consistent in their usage.

The purpose of this flurry of activity is to be sure a finished novel is really that: a completed work ready to be sent to publishers. In six weeks, out it goes, so it needs to be all shiny. Short stories may need to wait a couple of weeks. But that's okay. I'm ahead of sched on those anyway.

3 comments:

  1. Congrats, Anne! I feel differently every time I get to this stage. It depends on the manuscript. Sometimes I'm really excited and others I'm sad to see the story come to a close. Sometimes I look forward to revisions--like you I revise as I go. Other times I dread the daunting task of revising. Crazy, right?

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  2. Congratulations on reaching the end of it! I'm sure that overwhelmed feeling will go away when you get the last bit written. I have to make myself get a first draft done before I do much editing. Otherwise I'll keep polishing that fist bit forever and never get anything else written. I'm impressed that you can do it as you go.

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  3. There's nothing quite like getting to the end of the story. I usually have a couple days of depression that I've finished that character's story, and like Kelly, I sometimes look forward to revision, and sometimes I LOATHE it! :)

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