Nothing creative to post today.
Although I have a correction to make in my timeline to post coming up. A small bit of significant history I forgot to include. Oh well.
The second draft of my novel, (currently titled Reimarsoga) is now in the can and I’m letting it cool for a few days before I dig back into it. I need to give my brain a chance to rest and think. I have sent it out to a couple of alpha readers for feedback and seeing if I missed some major things that must be addressed, and then we move forward for the third and fourth edits… which I hope will be the last of them thanks to each step involving outside input.
What made the second draft so hard was simply how much new content I had to write. The first draft was great exploration but when I started learning about editing and better storycraft and functional use of the three act structure, I realized I had a beginning hook and great middle build… but no real conclusion. Part of this might be because I had expected this to be only the first part of a bigger book (which the remainder is now to become an even bigger second novel), the other is just because of bad planning and storytelling on my part.
So I re-plotted and decided to look at all of the “Chekov’s Guns” I’d drawn in the course of it all. I considered major tropes that fantasy novels loved to have in. I thought about all the things that I loved in novels and said:
“Self, you need to fix this and write write write.”
“Okay… but only if you hurry this up, rational thought. I have a deadline to meet.”
“Deadline, Schmedline. It’ll be done when it’s done and that’ll be when its good.” Rational Mind snapped
“Isn’t it always good?” Self whined?
“No. Now shut up, here’s a Vonnagut colored crayon for your mouth. Get writing!”
And that was the way of it. I put out over 120 pages of new content, scattered throughout the entire plotline. There were so many holes! Not to mention converting the whole book over from first to third person! Ugh! You realize how frustrating that can be? It may be easy to change “I” to “He” and what not, but just that delay in moving forward can be disheartening.
Then came the worst sensations of the edit: I started to fear its completion! One half of the brain was freaking out because the book could suck and I’d be just wasting my time. Many times I spit the crayon out of my mouth or bit it in two, frustrated at my own inability to make myself coherent. Time and time again, like many a good writer I suspect, I threw out what I thought was good, but in the ended up with a “this fish tastes funny” so I spit it out and tried again. At times, I was fortunate enough to be blessed with two very precious people to give me feedback just when I needed it most (take another pair of bows Torfinn and Francois… aren’t they lovely folks?) and help me conquer so many questions that finally… FINALLY, the end was in sight last on Wednesday night.
Then fear of success jumped up and kicked me in the ding ding. What if I did succeed? Then what? I started having a bit of a freak out over that. Now although it seems to be rare for people to have anxiety over succeeding, I get it, and it can be powerful enough to destroy the whole creative process. Why? Because you get comfortable with the creative process and do not wish it to end for fear of not knowing what is next. Or something else more fitting for your own situation. So I wrestled with it as it stole my creativity and voice. It did not want me to produce anything of good enough quality that I could complete the work. It was not writer’s block per sey for I could pump out pablum and be done with it… but my conscience would not allow that.
Thankfully, I was able to have a small spark of inspiration and make a leap forward and those last pages shot out like a lovely last silver salute and chrysanthemum (know your fireworks), and I could relax. The hardest work so far was done.
And I was surprised at the peace that I had. Now it was clear how often I was fearing doing this novel right as much as I was fearing doing it wrong. I am looking forward to the third edit and the beta read and the cover competition, and hiring an editor…
and finally maybe… just maybe…
making my ultimate deadline and book release dates.
So much more to learn and do.
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