Editing a NaNo Novel

So NaNoWriMo is all finished up. It's been over a week and it's time for things to get swinging again, despite the December rush. I flipped through the NaNo site today and got my code for Createspace. Anyone that managed to complete their 50k words during the month of November gets a code that gives them a free proof copy of their novel from them.

Prior to this year, I never would have really looked at the whole self-publish realm. Basically, it's just like self-aggrandizement. People self-publish their crap just to feel good about themselves. Nothing of real quality comes out of it, and there's no way to take it seriously or make any actual money off of it. Yeah, that's what I used to think. Then I met Randolph Lalonde, the author of the Spinward Fringe series.

Randy has been writing his series for a while, and currently lives off his self-published novels. Most of his writing is available only in e-book format, though you can now order print copies as well. His books are actually really good and addicting, so it's no wonder he's doing well on the self-pub market. Taking a chance and actually reading some self-published stuff has given, in my mind, some legitimacy to the style.

Sure, I still want to see some stuff get published through traditional sources. I plan to submit some queries once I get the first book polished, and have all three books in my Werewolf & Witched Trilogy drafted. So why did I bring up Createspace then? Well, I want that free proof copy. And if after a couple years of shopping around the first novel (which can stand alone if I so choose) no one has picked it up, I can go ahead and put my approval on the Createspace publication and give a go at the self-pub market. Scrounge up an e-book version for Smashwords and Mobipocket, and I'll end up seeing whether I can get some coin back from my efforts.

But more important, the Createspace thing gives me a deadline. Basically, it tells me that I must have my novel fully polished by Mid-May 2010 at the latest. Moving along those lines I did a couple of things today: I formatted things for Createspace submission (5.25" x 8", size 8 font, 3/4" margins), cut the file off at the end of the first book, ran the thing through spellcheck (an hour-long process), and then began editing. I made it through the 26th page. This is going to be painful.

It turns out almost every character other than the MC has the same name in these first 26 pages. People take on other character's speech habits, and there are already inconsistencies of character. I've cut almost half of what was there, and will have to rewrite a good chunk of the other half. This is the chore of a NaNo novel I suppose.

While I'm moving my way through the editing of this novel, I'm going to have to continue to work on the second novel. As I said, I won't be shopping the book around until after I have all three done at least in first draft form. I want to have the first draft of the 2nd book done before February, and the first draft of the 3rd book complete before April so I can focus on Script Frenzy.

Lots to do, little time to do it in. Wish me luck!

Post NaNo Recovery

Here it is! Finally, after a lot of work, numerous write-ins and a couple of parties, National Novel Writing Month is complete. It was a hell of a month. And by a hell of a month, I mean a great experience I can only hope to repeat and better in future years. This blog is all about what I've been doing this past month, and how I've gone about creating some good writing habits.

The first piece of advice any author is likely to give anyone hoping to get into writing is this: write every day. NaNoWriMo is all about getting into that habit. For every day of November, the goal is to write at least 1,667 words. By November 30th, you need to be above 50k words in order to call the month a success. In addition to a difficult letter, and numerous e-mails as the Municipal Liaison for the Sudbury area, I wrote 70,195 words. Now that the month is over, you would think that would mean that I'm finished with my NaNo novel. You'd be wrong.

You see, my novel, or rather novels, are not done. The first book of the trilogy is skeletanized, with a first draft outlining a lot of the basic events as they are supposed to happen, and it contains a number of scenes that need to be cut, and holes that need to be filled out. The second book, I'm only about half-way through skeletanizing. The third book I haven't even started yet, and I'm good with not starting it until a few months into 2010.

So, I've a few goals for myself to work through. This month, I need to get through skeletanizing the 2nd book. I started it, I need to walk it through to the ending. I don't need to write at the same pace that I bashed my way through November, but I do need to get a fair number more words done. I'm aiming at about 30,000 more words. I figure once I'm at 50k, I'll have a good skeleton that walks me through the 2nd part of my trilogy.

I also plan to go through my first book, or the first 50k words of NaNo, and start crossing out the scenes I want to cut out. So I'll be getting that thing printed up and I'll do a brief read through. I won't be doing any major revisions, just crossing out and re-outlining the plot. I figure that's something that I can do during my breaks at work, so that's how I plan to take care of it. When I'm home, I have other priorities.

The Monday Night Writing Pack is starting up again. It will once again be an informal thing, and for most of December it looks unlikely that I'll be able to attend. Seems the boss thinks I need to be in on Monday nights for some reason. Not a big deal really, but I'll try to get my butt out to the library as often as I can. I'm promising myself at least two good evenings devoted to writing every week, with a minimum of an hour a day. I did it for all of NaNo, so I can do it some more.

So what are these novels about? The first one focuses on a werewolf taking revenge. The second one focuses on a reckoning of witch covens in Sudbury. The third part I'll have to look at a coming of age story for the young werewolf-child. Not sure if that's quite the route I want to take with the third story, but the second one kind of went into the realm that I originally wanted to take the third book to, and the first novel didn't end quite how I had originally plotted it. Funny how things can change while you're writing.

Basically, I have to say that I'm super impressed with this year's event. Not only were there excellent turn outs at ALL of the events I setup, and not only did I make a tonne of writing friends, and not only did I have fun, but I actually managed to crank out a pretty good skeletal draft of a novel that I'm not so sick of I never want to see it again. Over the next few months, I'm going to be cranking out the remainder of book 2, editing book 1, and maybe even editing book 2. Then, maybe next November, or maybe during Script Frenzy in April, I'll crank out Book 3.

I've got high hopes. Let's see them come to light.

Helpful Critiques

The Underground Writers has had their first critiquing session. This was something that we all felt was missing from the Sudbury Hypergraphic Society, so we made sure to put concrete deadlines for something to be submitted to the group for critiquing. I believe I mentioned in one of my previous posts that I had rushes to finish a draft of "Bloodspurt" for this particular session. Well, the word has come back from the group. They were entertained, always a good sign, but they could tell that it was definitely a rough draft. It was obvious where I started rushing to the ending, and numerous small comments came up about different parts and people's preferences.

Overall, I was pretty impressed actually. I knew there were a lot of problems with the piece, but I would have missed about half of what they mentioned. The pieces I critiqued were all pretty well polished in comparison with my draft, so I feel really bad about hogging so many useful comments. Everyone received their fair share though. A piece here, a transition there, some dialog, some character... There was a little for everyone to work on, and from what I'm hearing, most can hardly wait to do it again.

I almost have my piece ready for the next deadline. "Tactical Medics" took a slightly different route from the one I had originally anticipated, but I am very impressed with what I've managed to crank out this time. It feels a lot more polished, and pending a quick read-through by a regular reader, I'm pretty confident this piece will be a little better for the group to scrape through. I have the third draft sitting in front of me, and it's been chewed down to 4,027 words from 4,183. I had to add a couple of paragraphs to make the ending a little more foreshadowed, and to give the characters a little more character. I may need to look at their dialog a little more to differentiate between the two primary characters, but I'm not overly concerned. Gonna look at that when I move from third to fourth draft.