Heads up for New Hampshire folks: This Saturday, December 3rd I’ll be at Main Street BookEnds in Warner from 12:30 to 2:00pm signing books, talking to customers, and in general just hanging out. The awesome local children’s authors David Elliot and Matt Forrest Esenwine will also be there throughout the day as part of Warner’s Hometown Holidays event. Click here for more details, and if you’re around, stop by and say hi!
Novel revisions have been going well, which has me in a really good mood.
In late August I finally finished the rough draft of my Secret New Novel, took a week off, then began second draft revisions. Writing the second draft is eons easier than writing the first draft because I’ve already got a scaffolding of what the novel will look like, and I know the characters and story a lot better than I did at this time last year. So, sitting down to write every day has been much, much easier.
Still, it’s not all a walk in the park: several chapters, particularly near the beginning, needed to be 90-95% rewritten, and for most of the others I’m still changing 50-70% of what’s on the page from Draft 1. Fortunately, though, the revision process has gotten easier as I move forward, both because the chapters themselves are in better shape, and I’m developing more of a rapport with the novel itself.
To aid in this, I’ve also been able to devote my full four mornings a week to writing most weeks, and only had a few weeks where massive workloads forced it down to three mornings. This has not only been good for getting more words down on the page, but also helped keep me in a writing rhythm, where sitting down to write becomes that much easier. Getting up an hour earlier (or, realistically, 30-45 minutes earlier) for the Daylight Savings Time change has also been a huge productivity boost, and I’m glad I made this change too.
Thanksgiving: A Day for Writing
Ever since grad school, I’ve been able to get a lot of writing done the morning of Thanksgiving. In grad school things always slowed down during Thanksgiving before the end of the semester rush, so I was able to steal a few solid hours to write before meeting the other grad students for a Friendsgiving. I kept up the habit after re-entering the working world, where the holiday slowdown created the perfect time for writing.
This year was no exception. Though I didn’t do any editing or other work on Thanksgiving, I did get up at my usual time and did my usual 2-3 hours of novel revisions, which went very well. I had some cooking responsibilities that I was able to take care of the night before and in the early afternoon after writing, and I felt better knowing that I didn’t have to deal with a bunch of email later in the day. So, it didn’t feel like a workday, just a holiday where I wrote.
That said, I fully acknowledge that writing on Thanksgiving probably isn’t for everyone, especially if you have a lot of cooking responsibilities or have to wrangle family members. I’ve never written on Christmas (and don’t plan to), but for me, Thanksgiving morning has been a good time to set aside for writing.
The End of Draft 2 in Sight!
I’ve begun to think more about the timeframe for actually finishing this novel, including the draft I’m currently on. I fully expect to go through at least five drafts total, and maybe more, and while each draft will go faster than the one before it, this could still take quite a few more months if major sections still need ironing out.
Within the past week I’ve been trying to speed up my pace a bit, and I’m realizing that finishing the second draft by Christmas (or, at the very least, New Years) is quite doable, and a useful goal to keep me on track. This would allow me to take a solid week off from writing between Christmas and New Years to coincide with the week I always try to take off anyway, rather than taking a week off between Drafts 2 and 3 during a different time, which feels like a more efficient use of my break time.
More importantly, though, is that finishing Draft 2 before 2022 is out will be an important milestone, and show me that I’m well on my way to getting this novel done two years (!) after I first started it.
To this end, I did something I don’t normally do and counted down the number of days before Christmas, along with how many chapters I have left to revise. Working 4 days a week leaves 16 writing days before Christmas, and with 8 more chapters to go, I’ll have to finish half a chapter every writing day. This is about the pace I’ve been working under anyway, so it seems incredibly reasonable, especially if no major snags come up (which I don’t expect them to).
Since some of the final chapters are shorter and in better shape than the middle ones, I may be able to work even faster than that (!!!!), but I’m trying not to look too far ahead.
Moving Forward
So that’s where I’m at now, and I think the Christmas (or at the latest, New Years) deadline is well within reason. If I can get Draft 2 done before the end of 2022, I may be able to get a publishable draft of this novel together by spring, though I’m trying not to place too much stock in a final deadline as of yet.
For me, continuing to write forward, developing better work habits, and building up other aspects of my writing life are all important to building the creative career I’d like to have, and while I’d much rather have those things sooner rather than later, I don’t want to discourage myself by setting an impossible deadline and then missing it.