Momentum. It's all about momentum.

[mousme]

::Stuff about writing follows, uncut. If you don't want to read it, you may want to skip this whole post.::

I started writing again last night, after doing No Writing At All since the end of November. NaNoWriMo kind of burnt me out. Remind me never to produce 100,000 words in a month again unless I'm getting paid for it, okay?

Right. Onward.

So now that I'm writing again, I'm going to try and maintain my momentum. Writing for me is always about momentum. An author in motion will tend to remain in motion, and all that. I chucked about 3,000 words of Crisse, des Zombies! last night (shoved them unceremoniously into another word processing document, where they will likely stew for all eternity), and wrote nearly 4,000 more last night and this morning to compensate. I feel less like I'm going backwards now that I've "made up" those 3,000 words, and I'm hoping that I'll be able to move past this difficult bit with which I'm having problems.

I also hand-wrote a new instalment of Beyond the Pale while at work. i have no idea how long it is, but I know that 6-7 pages of handwriting usually gets me to roughly the right length for an instalment, and I've brought it to an appropriate cliffhanger. I'm looking forward to finishing this story arc and moving into the next one, because there are exciting things up ahead.

Question for author-types on my flist: For the first time in my life I'm facing the very real possibility that I might finish a novel that I'm working on. Trouble is, I am not at all good at the whole revision thing. I have a very, very rough first draft on my hands, and no idea how to go about turning it into a second draft. Any tips/techniques/answers concerning the meaning of life?

More writing tonight when I get home, I think. It's all about momentum, after all.

Comments

[d-and-cats.livejournal.com]

djs_specs asked me to take a pass at this since I just started submitting my second novel to agents a couple of weeks back. Not sure how useful you'll find the suggestions, but, here goes.

1). Find two or three people who are willing to read your novel and provide you with their honest opinions about it. This is not the time to get someone who will spare your feelings. If you don't know anyone, your best bet is probably http://www.critters.org/ (http://www.critters.org/). They expect you to pay by doing some critiquing, but them's the breaks.
2). Give yourself some time to get some distance. It takes about a month to get through the queue at Critters, so that should be about right.
3). Once you have read the critiques you get, sit down with a copy of them handy and read the novel with them in hand. Note which ones you agree with, which ones you disagree with, and which ones are mistakes caused by places where your writing is unclear.
4). Once you've finished your read through, make a list of changes that need to be made. Give them at least a week or two to stew in your brain.
5). Go through your novel and make your changes. It may take more than one pass.
6). If possible, get the people who critiqued you before to look at it again.
7). Rinse, repeat as necessary.

Hope this helps.