Namedropping (I Finished a Book!)
Last week I typed the final words to the first draft of The Former Self. At 105,000 words, the fantasy novel took four years and a lot of sidetracking to be finished.
The manuscript started as a National Novel Writing
Month in November 2013, haphazardly named The
Clone as a working title. I “won” that year, finishing November with the
first 50,000 words. I wasn’t doing well, honestly. I found 2012 to be much more
productive, having gotten down the first 60,000 words of The Dying Breed (a manuscript that would become 180,000 words over
the course of five months) in twenty days.
I graduated from college in January ’12, and found
my writing slowing way down. Back in high school, I was successfully writing
almost every day, finishing four novels my senior year. I had some plays and
short stories done during my university days, but not a lot.
The Dying
Breed started for the Writing Month, coming out easily compared to anything
else I’d written. (Funnily enough, most of those first 60,000 words that were
so obvious to me did not survive the later cuts.) I started working on The Dying Breed seriously for
publication for the first time, something that I finally acted on this January
after years of edits.
The Former
Self was my next attempt. I started stories and wrote a little, but a lot
of my time was taken up in theatre. I didn’t finish anything, nothing came as
easily or as naturally as before. In November, I again picked up my pen and
kept up with the quota demanded of me by an internet graph.
For several years, National Novel Writing Month
was the only time I really got any work done. I have pulsed through the first
50,000—though painfully, but never finished any until last year I finally
managed to put the finishing touches on the first draft of The Vicarious Saving of the World.
Summed up, I started The Dying Breed in November 2012, The Former Self in November 2013, and I believe the Vicarious Saving of the World in
December 2013, drawing my attention away from The Former Self until I
finished it in 2016. In the meantime, I wrote numerous other books, many for
the Writing Month, but didn’t finish any.
I had been hoping for a while to get back to my
prolific writing style, but have been unable to do so. I blame depression and a
lack of enthusiasm for life; 2014-2015 was a terrible time in my life.
Recently though, I’ve been getting ahead. On my web comics, on my Stories of the Wyrd, on my blogs. On the same day I finished my book, I also finalized a quilt top, and got five comics ready for scanning, as well as worked on my painting for a long-term project, Making the Horizon.
Do I like working on these projects all at once?
Somewhat. Not entirely. I find that the long duration of writing a book sucks
out some of its inspiration. There’s also a natural continuity that is
encouraged when you remember what you’re doing. When you take so long to finish
a book, you don’t remember what you were going for, what you’ve done, or even
hold the same inspiration for it.
So why do some stories need to be finished while
others don’t? In honesty, it is tempting for many authors to always start
something new rather than continue to work on the old. I personally recommend
trying to stick with a manuscript until you finish it, and prefer the results
of having my head in one game.
On the other hand, switching back and forth can
also increase motivation. It is easier to write five pages in five books than
five in one. When you get stuck, you can switch over. When you get inspired,
you don’t have to.
But why did The
Former Self beat out all of the others I have open? What about it made it
need finishing? Well, for one thing, size does matter. The closer to the end
something is, the more likely I am to prioritize it. Finishing a first draft
feels good. You’ve accomplished something!
And it’s something that you can accomplish
on your own accord. Unlike all the other hurdles (getting picked up by an agent,
getting published, getting lots of sales, getting awards), it’s something you
can achieve by sheer will alone.
But The
Former Self also has a beginning that keeps me reading for the first 20 pages,
even if I’m supposed to be writing. The concept, unlike most of my other books,
is decently pitch worthy, more easy to sum up. It was one of the three books I
cared about, for whatever reason, but it had the most marketability.
A young merchant girl comes to find that the man
she loves is actually nothing more than a supernatural shadow, created by the aristocrat
known as the Coffin Prince.
I’m not too fantastic at my pitching or blurbs,
nor am I inspired with the one above. In fact, I don’t have any attempts at a
query letter or any sort of sales pitch going. I just know that it has more of
a concept than either The Vicarious
Saving of the World or The Dying
Breed.
As of right now, I’m not too satisfied with it
either. It comes off as too young adult for me—a style I’m trying to get away
from. There’s a traveling scene—a conflict I’m trying to get away from, and
some places in which I need to bring it way down while others I need to pump it
way up. To make it more adultish, I need to add to the sexual tension, but surprisingly,
I want to take away some of the violence. The Coffin Prince (whose name came up
recently and I’m not sure I’m too thrilled with, depending on the direction I
want to go) actually, I think, needs to be less cold blooded. Though the
antagonist, I believe it would serve that instead of massacring his copies in
murderous ways, he actually absorbs them back into his blade, making it clear
why he doesn’t see it as murder, but still painting a terrifying picture as
their clothes and metal bones are left behind.
The nice thing about working on several books at
one time is that it’s not as hard to transition to the next one. Usually there
is a lag between them, and I’m not always inspired to write something the
moment I finish with something else. It’s not as clean cut as that.
But looking through my works and how far along
they are, I’ve decided to continue the next in line—the one that will be
easiest to finish.
The Song
Bird’s Lie (working title) had been started several months before The Dying Breed. I believe I had begun
it after Silver Diggers, the
manuscript that Stories of the Wyrd
is based on, still in my one manuscript at a time stage. I stopped midway
through because of the intense inspiration I had and the good timing of the
Writing Month coming up, planning on picking it back up afterwards. I didn’t. I
worked on it, of course, even making a detailed outline of 100 pages of what
would happen. It still lacks an ending, but I have a summation of events picked
out for me. At 55,000 words and everything that’s going to happen, I think it’ll
be actually pretty easy to get it done soon.
If I was diligent (ha) and loyal, I could
theoretically finish it at 90,000 words within two weeks’ time.
But no. I’m still working on The Plane (slowly but surely) like I said I would, am filling
up my portfolio of Stories of the Wyrd to make my life easier in the future, plus know that my big project of Making the Horizon, needs to be
worked on piece by piece, otherwise I’d be committing solely to it for the next
decade, and that’s not going to happen.
My ambition seems to getting ahead of me, but I
actually look at all the little bit I’ve moved forward—inch by inch, piece by
piece—has progressed me towards something. I’m not as far behind as I thought.
I’m pretty happy, even though I know Former
Self is going to take some work to get it up there.
Right now I’m focusing my editing on Vicarious in hopes to get it ready for
submission much faster than I did with The
Dying Breed. Editing always takes a backburner, so does publishing for that
matter, and I think it’s time to prioritize it. I might be okay with writing a
bunch of different things, but I’m trying to zero in my focus.
So, you’re probably not going to be reading this
any time soon. I am actively looking for readers and critique partners however.
If you’re interested in traded manuscripts, giving me feedback, or just telling
me how you responded, send me an email at info.daveler@gmail.com and we can see
what we can do.
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