Second Novel

I finished the second novel on Tuesday, as I believe I said I would. That's actually pretty good for me--it's not all the time that I actually keep my word about things. Of course, with my writing style (which I won't give up for anything, at least not at this time) that means i have three notebooks full of writing hardly intelligible to anyone except myself. I wish I could say I've been busy since Tuesday, diligently transcribing the written words to the computer screen, changing details, making the grammar flow better, but I haven't. Well, okay, I actually have, but not as much as I'd like.

I have about half of the book finished now, typed up on the computer, looking decent, sounding decent. I'm actually really proud of the prose style. The problem, of course, is that most of those chapters I had written up before. Since Tuesday, I've actually wrote about four chapters for the second draft. In other words, this thing is going to take a while. Fortunately all the mental heavy lifting has been done at this point. Now I just have to find the discipline to keep at it every day so I can get it done in a decent time. I'm capable of writing a chapter and a half every day. Realistically, that might turn into a chapter. Up until now, I've actually averaged about three-quarters of a chapter a day. But that's going to change! Maybe.

Let's set a goal, then. Let's set a goal of 12 days from now. One chapter per day, twelve more chapters to type up. That will put me at Friday, June 4th. If I blast that sucker out of the water, more power to me, but by no means will I go over that date. I still have way too many things planned for this summer, and this novel will not monopolize my time.

Seeing the Light at the End of the Tunnel

By which I mean, I'm almost finished with my second novel. Okay, so it's a children's novel. Big deal. Okay, so I'm not supposed to talk about works in progress. Big deal. I'm still proud of it. I'm proud I kept with it this long, and even though I'm not meeting my original deadline of one and a half weeks, I'm going to be finished with it in a couple days. Instead of ten days, it will end up being sixteen days, but it will still be finished. My new estimated time of completion is Tuesday, and as long as I stay focused, I should crush it. Then I'll get on with the hard work.

I love plotting. Plots are hobbies with me. Sometimes when I'm bored I'll start plotting a new book. Since I discovered a plotting style that I enjoy, I'm not afraid to start new projects, because I know that plotting will take maybe a week, and even an ADHD-er like me can handle a week. Plotting is like instant gratification for me. Some people watch movies, I plot novels. Anyway, what was the point of that little tangent? Oh yes! Although I like plotting, I've been finding out that in the course of writing, it's good not to stick too rigidly with the skeleton. The book grows, it takes on a life of its own, it becomes different than what I originally envisioned. And that's where the beauty of it all comes in.

Also, I've figured out that my favorite milieu is novels, not short stories. How long is it before most people figure that one out?

I'll get back soon, probably when I've finished the book, and I'll talk about some summer plans.

Change of Plans

Summer's here, school's done (and how!), and I'm back at work. All of those goals I discussed in my last blog are moot, because another goal has taken over. Which is? Well, I'm getting around to that, give me a minute. Ok. A minute has passed (and wouldn't you like to know if it actually was a minute or if I was just writing off the top of my head?) and I'm ready to tell you. Maybe. Ok, yes I am.

I'm finishing up the children's novel, and I really am almost finished. I'm aiming to be finished with the first draft sometime next week. Amazing, I know, right? The idea came to me in a flash of genius right after I woke up sometime late last week, and I started six days ago, even before I was finished with exams. Shows how much I cared about those wastes of time. BTW, the best flashes of genius come right after I wake up, I don't know why.

Anyway, I had gotten up to the halfway point last year before I stopped the book, and that was in late August, right before I went back to school. I haven't picked it up since, but I'm going on momentum, and I've written quite a bit in it since I started writing it again. Of course some things will have to be changed, but the first draft is the hardest thing to complete, and that's about seventy-five percent finished.

I've started reading other children's books too, and plan on analyzing them for stylistic elements. I'm reading Artemis Fowl at the moment, since it's the only other book I know of in recent memory that deals with the same subject (Fairies) as my book. Even though it deals with the same subject, I plan on approaching it from a completely different angle, using different style and the like. I'm glad I started reading it, though, because one of my fairies had the same name as one of Colfer's fairies. After that scary moment, I realized this was going to give me a better opportunity to make a new fairy culture--go more in depth, find new ways to name fairies, that sort of thing.

After Artemis Fowl, I'm going to read Harry Potter 1 again to analyze that. Even though that book is a lot different, I think its style is what I'm going for. We'll find out, won't we? And of course, I opted not to take the children's lit class at school next semester, so I'm going to be shooting in the dark. But this will be novel number two, and that is something to be proud of, even if I don't technically know what I'm doing.