Rewriting vs. Revision

Alright, first things first. I hit the 50k word mark for NaNoWriMo last night. November 17, baby! Averaged almost 3,000 words a day.

And while that’s exciting and all, what’s really great is that I have another finished draft of my novel.

I don’t mean it’s perfect or ready for querying in its current form. I mean that the rewriting phase of this novel is over. I’m not going back and adding another 40k words after cutting 30k. No more changing plot points around, re-configuring the story, or re-outlining.

Draft 3 is my workable final draft and what comes next is revising, not rewriting.

And boy does it feel good!

I’m going to have to go through this MS several times, hunting for specific things. In fact, I’ve started a list of things to consider as I’m reading and re-reading my manuscript while editing, including continuity, description of setting, and removing filtering. Still a lot of work, but I see the progress.

But what does that mean for NaNoWriMo? Am I done?

No.

In fact, I’m about to do several hours of online sprints with my critique group. Writing is a habit and I have to keep it going. If NaNoWriMo teaches you one thing, it’s that making writing a habit can and should be done.

Like I mentioned in my previous post, I want to submit to Three Crows Magazine, so I will be working on my short story for them. It’s already halfway written, though, so we will see what I do once that’s done and there’s still 10+ more days of NaNoWriMo left.

How about you guys? What’s your wordcount like? Have you been finding the time and forging the habit? I’m posting sprints from time to time on my Twitter, so hop into one if you catch one!

NaNoWriMo Check In

It’s November 15th! We are halfway through National Novel Writing Month and it is time for an update.

First, let me brag. I have 38,708 total words written (as of starting this blog) with an average of 2,580 written per day. I’ve only written 1,335 today, but I’ve got a couple more sprints coming up and I’m doing a write-in with my writing/critique friends tonight.

Speaking of, my writing/critique friend/podcast co-host is already at 52k words. The dude is a machine.

So, I’m definitely on track to win this year. In fact, I’m probably only a couple days away from finishing this final draft of Rat. I’m at at the start of my climax and by this time next week (or sooner), I should be done. Which is great! That gives me plenty of time to bang out the short story I want to write for the Three Crows Magazine submission (found here).

But let me update you in other ways, too.

My birthday was last week and I floated into 32 without much fuss. Just another year around the sun. A couple days later, though, my contract was terminated early for my day job. The next 24 hours were filled with anxiety, panic, and sleeplessness.

And then I was offered another job. Better hours, better pay, and less human interaction. This week has been my first week and I’m still in training, but it’s going well. I get to use my SUPERDUPERULTRAFAST typing skills for it and I don’t have to worry about my future. I’m extremely thankful for the opportunity that this person has given me in offering me this job.

Next week is Thanksgiving and I KNOW you all are going to be busy and writing will be hard. You get time off of work, but you don’t get time off from family. If anything, more of your time is taken up.

But you can do it. Two 15 minute sprints a day. One right when you get up, before you get out of bed, before you interact with family, before they even know you’re up. You’ll be focused and you’ll get a jump on the day. The second? Right before sleep. You’ll be tired, you won’t want to do it, but it is a great endcap to your day.

Come on. Do it. I know you can. Let’s all win NaNoWriMo together this year!

Jump on it!

Here we go! It’s National Novel Writing Month (or day 2 of it) and we’re off to the races. Or I am. Remind me to look up the history of that saying ‘cause it sounds ridiculous.

I had a strong opening day to NaNo. I woke up and did a sprint, hitting almost 600 words, before going to a write-in with my podcast co-hosts and writing group friends where I knocked out another 3400. I’m trying to keep that big energy for as long as possible, because I know that once November 15th rolls around things get slow.

What I’m happiest about, actually, is that I was able to dive back into Rat so easily. Just goes to show you’re your own worst enemy. Or I’m my own. I guess I can’t speak to you and your villains. All it takes is sitting down to write. Sure, there’s something magical about the chaos and fury of NaNo, but there’s nothing stopping me from treating every other month in the year like a mini-NaNo.

This just makes me think of the Spongebob meme.

How did your guys’ NaNo start? Are you hitting your goals? Just warming up? Or avoiding the mess altogether?

NaNoWriMo Prep

The spookiest part of Halloween is National Novel Writing Month the day after. Have you prepped? Are you ready? I am. Join me!

This will be my third year doing NaNoWriMo. Last year I won by writing the second draft of Rat. This year I’ll be writing the fourth draft. Lots of rewrites, lots of revision, lots of sitting around not working on it for the last few months. It’s been tough.

But I told myself I would dive into it for NaNo and that’s what I’m going to do.

I’m approaching NaNo a little differently this year. Act one of Rat is already written. It’s even close to being a final draft. Acts two and three are outlined and though I’ve pulled some stuff from previous drafts, they basically both need to be written. It’s about 40,000 words. This year will be less of the word-vomit sprint NaNo usually is and more of a refined marathon to get the final draft of Rat finished. That means editing, the big “no no” of NaNo. But I’m a rule-breaker. Deal with it.

So, six days away to 40k words and some editing. Six days til I dive back into my main WIP. Yikes.

What’s your WIP for NaNo about? Tweet me or comment below.

Here we go!

Quarter three, where have you gone?

October. Spooktember. Halloween month. Here we are again. Another quarter of 2018 gone and into the home stretch.

How’d you do this quarter? Did you accomplish your goals? Most of them? I hope so. ‘Cause I didn’t. I did… a few. I hit some other great milestones that weren’t on my Q3 2018 list, though, so that’s something. Having a short story published in Five on the Fifth was pretty amazing.

Did I plan to have Rat finished by now? Yes. Do I? No. Things change. We need to be okay with that. Sort of. It’s a difficult balance between being hard enough on yourself that you are motivated but not so hard that you de-motivate yourself.

That being said, I did not do well in quarter three. The podcast, The Genre Hustle, took off nicely, but most of my personal goals were not met.

So, I reflect, I take it in, and I get ready for Q4 2018. The second I’m done with this blog post, I’m going to write up my list.

A few updates!

We’ve recorded more than half of season two of The Genre Hustle already, but we’re taking a break until 2019. Thank Cthulhu for that, I need it. The podcast is a blast, but it is a lot of work. I’m going to enjoy having a bit of breathing space on that one.

I have two short stories in the works. One for Murder Park After Dark Volume II (yayyyy!) and the other for Three Crows magazine. Once those are done, I’m diving back into Rat, just in time for NaNoWriMo. I’ll be sure to keep you guys updated with my progress during the month of November.

Let’s end 2018 on an upswing, yeah? Yeah! What are some of your Q4 goals? Tweet them to me at @apthayer.

Stay frosty.