Sorry, it seems that whoever I tell, whether family or friends, they just look at me like I told them I just bought a new TV or something.
But, somehow, I have finished the first draft of a novel, coming in at 71.9k words. Don't know how I did it, I've forgotten most of it in the haze of exhaustion that all that writing produced, but the other day I wrote the last line and said, "Holy shit. It's done..." before collapsing happy and laughing at the keyboard.
I don't know any other writers in real life, so I figured I'd at least throw it out there for other writers who know just how god damned difficult these two months have been for me. I'm emotionally and intellectually exhausted but I'm exhilirated and now I have no idea what the hell to do. It feels like climbing a mountain only to find more rock when you thought you hit the peak.
I'm giving the book about six weeks to fade a bit before I go through with the first editing pass and I was wondering if anyone has any advice going forward? I've only done short stories so far and I'm wondering if this will be the same, only longer. Any thoughts?
Congratulations! I have no advice since I haven't finsished a novel, but I know you deserve a big congratulations. That's a huge accomplishment.
Don't leave it too long; write a short story then get back to the novel. Write down any ideas you have in the meantime, and make sure you have paper/pen/whatever beside your bed for those just falling asleep thunderbolts. Congratulations!
Grats!
Well done. Well done.
Polite applause.
Watches with interest the journey.
Congratulations! Always a great feeling to put "The End" on something you've been working on for so long.
I finished my fifth novel first draft about a month ago (they were all nanowrimo babies) and now after letting it marinate for a while I'll be starting on a second draft tomorrow morning. Seeing as the first four novels were nowhere near worthy of a second draft, I can assure you I have no clue what I'm doing, but if I have any notes or stories from the road, I'll be sure and pass them along.
I'm walking in armed with the notes I made after I finished (before re-reading), the line-by-line I've worked on for the last week or so, and an outline of the structure now that I've rearranged the story to my liking. I don't know if this means I'm adequately prepared or not, but I guess I'll know tomorrow when I've got that blank page in front of me.
Anywho, congratulations again, and good luck with the next steps.
Congrats. For the next few days, you'll have ideas pop into your head for the rewrite, so keep a notebook handy. Don't worry about rewriting it for a week at least, but keep a notebook by your side. Little lines of dialogue and plot points you forgot about are going to emerge.
Don't think "I'll remember this idea when I get back to that part of the story." You won't. I promise. Take notes.
When you read the draft, use that same notebook and take notes like you're in a college class. Find the parts that make you groan. Just mark them, don't rewrite them yet. Keep it light, like you're reading someone else's work.
And above all, even though it's your work, Don't take it personally. A novel is its own creature, and the failures and successes of that first draft are a challenge, not a condemnation.
Congrats, John! I had that feeling last year, and hope to have it again in '13. Good luck with your rewrite!
I w00t for you.
Do you use Scrivener? Use Scrivener.
But if you don't, here's why I like it, and how you can use MS Word or something else the same way:
When I revise long work, I can't just do edits by reading my previous manuscript; I have to re-type it out completely. I suggest that to everyone, honestly, because otherwise you lose the integrity of your edits and probably won't get anything to work the way you wanted it to.
So, Scrivener: it fucking rules, because you can open two panes and have one up top with the previous manuscript and one down below that's either blank or your edits, and you can start writing. It's so easy, takes no trouble. Sure, it's not necessary to have Scrivener to do this: open MS Word twice, scale them to half the screen, position them on top of each other -- but with Scrivener, you can make those "encompassing" edit notes (like add more of a motif here, or check consistency of a thought-line in another scene there) in a little pane that you get by clicking the "Info" button. To do something similar with Word, you'd have to open yet another pane, re-size the original two to 2/3 of the screen size, and make the new document a running to-do list, but you can't organize it by scene unless you want a shit ton of word documents clogging up your computer.
Also, after posting initially, I found a craft essay here called "The First Draft," by Max Berry that had some really great advice, so if anyone else has finished their first drafts coming out of NaNo, you should definitely check it out.
Good read, thanks for pointing it out. I've read a lot of the craft essays but that's one I hadn't seen. I'm hesitant to subject my first draft to public opinion just because I already know it needs so much work, but as I work on this next draft (1b) I think some of it's headed to the workshop.
@steven_inf
Bah, I've got a piece on its third run through and I am still explaining things I didn't make clear in the first place. Barry also said a few things about that and editing in the first place:
Sometimes what's wrong with a story leaps out as soon as I start getting feedback. It's so obvious! Only a moron, or an author who's spent the last two of years buried so deeply in his story that he can no longer see the way out, could miss it!
And then he emphasizes quantity. There are things you can have here. If you don't want to risk your 'baby' with us then pick somebody from the mix that has either been edited out or is a minor character and tell their story. Your style will still be there as will the weaknesses and strengths and the world the story is in.
Oh my baby will be making an appearance in the near future for sure. I just figure it doesn't make sense to waste anyone's time with my crappy first draft when I can waste their time with my slightly less crappy second draft. It's more fun to vandalize a house that just got a fresh coat of paint, isn't it?
My first draft is a hot mess
Likewise. I started my second draft on Tuesday (after about 5 weeks off), and I'm writing starting at the end and working my way to the beginning. I know that I started to figure things out plot-wise somewhere in the middle of my first draft, so I figured starting the re-write at the end would help me fill in the gaps at the beginning. I have no clue if that was a good idea or not. It also means I'm saving all of the hard work for last, which could be bad. We shall see I guess.
Good luck with the editing
I'm just going to warn you: you just set a monster loose. I love Scrivener and use all its functions and can go on for days.
As for the panes: when you have a scene open, in the top right of its screen, there's a bunch of buttons that are boxes. One's a solid box and the other two are split in two by a center line. Click the one that's two boxes on top of each other.
When you do that, a super-short pane opens beneath the one you're in. The background behind the title of your scene will darken to show you which pane you're working in. When you first divide the screen, both panes are the same scene. If you have a revised version, or an LBLed version, or anything like that, open it in the bottom and rescale it so it's a bit taller for easy reading. You can read it and use it to keep the integrity of your edits intact. I learned that the best way to edit is to read your own work while "starting from scratch" -- basically, open the panes, have the scene in the bottom one, and a blank scene in the top pane. Type out the entire scene, editing as you go.
The other pane I mention is the information one, which is where I make my notes. It opens when you click the blue "I" button up top right. It has the notecard for your scene (which I always edit after a scene is done to reflect exactly what happens for easy finding later) and, beneath that, the "meta-data" which is whether it's first draft, second draft, and chapter, scene, or idea. You can edit all of those, which I love. The draft number appears as a watermark on your notecard when you view the notecards and the chapter, scene, or idea are denoted by color, which look like a little highlighter streak at the top of the card. You can edit those tags to say whatever you want -- I like using the draft numbers when I first write, and then, on the third or fourth revision, I use them to mark scenes that need to be read for certain things -- like show vs. tell, dialogue, action, grammar, all that. Again, it's just easy to find later.
Beneath that is a "document notes" pane, which is a fucking life-saver during revisions. When I finish a manuscript, I let it sit for a while, and don't come back for at least like a week. Then, I reread the entire manuscript and make notes in that pane -- do I need to enhance the motif here? Is the symbolism dry? Did I fuck up a character's hair color and need to check its consistency? Are there any gaping holes in logic? Could this scene use more or less? Do I have a projected wordcount that needs to be garnished or cut here? Things like that.
And if you have the info pane open when you just click on the manuscript, it's "Project Notes," with a completely blue background and no other panes within the pane. You can make overall notes -- like consistency of characters, integrity of voice, all of that -- there.
If you have to do research, or effectively portray something you don't know well, all that, you can save research under that tab in the left and open it in the second pane, too. I do that quite a lot -- if I find a study that really encapsulates everything that needed to be discussed in my narrative, I refer to it constantly to guarantee my accuracy, so the panes are fantastic there, too.
Um, I think I rambled enough.
You're welcome!! Scrivener is my favorite writing tool ever. It's an absolute godsend for revisions in particular, so let me know if you have any other questions.
I think I'd rather stab my eyes out then use Scrivener again, but best of luck with it.
I think I'll be done with the last, good as I can get it edit of a memior here in the next several days. Very excited.
John if you use Word don't forget to learn the track changes and search functions. Most uses of that and just aren't needed.
Congratulations - it IS a huge accomplishment. Good plan to bask in the joy for a bit.
Have you read On Writing by Stephen King yet? If not, read it while you bask. He gives some of the most straightforward, practical advice for the "now what" phase of noveling.
My favorite piece? When you are ready to sit back down with it (I like to write something else in between, whether it's a few shorts, or another novel, although that sounds like I've written a lot more than I have), do the first read straight through. Definitely keep a notebook handy, but seriously - do a read without making any changes. That'll give you the best picture of the overall flow of the thing.
Then...tear it up! Beat it up! But know that, as the author, you will WIN.
Best of luck!
The new law of the land is that scrivener must only be used.
(don't worry Dwayne, I have a nice cane here)
(oh, and you touch type already right?)
Congrats! I agree with those above who say write something small and come back to the novel fresh in a few weeks. In the meantime, take notes on things your characters show up to tell you. Or if one of them comes back absolutely hell bent on kicking down your door, listen and follow.
I love that you say its a hot mess. I just finished my 3rd draft of my second book (first "book" is still in hot mess form) but here's the basic road map I've hacked out for my drafts:
#1. Brain dump (aka hot mess). I keep going even though nothing matches and everything changes as I go.
#2. Chronology, narrative arc, and character consistency.
#3. Plot holes and fact checks.
#4. Fleshing out the thin spots. Also, line edits. Grammar/spelling/clunky sentences. (Athough I do this in some of the earlier edits too).
That's the best of my advice. Oh, and savor the elation. It comes so seldom. Congratulations again. And best of luck!
@John - I don't know if it is any good, but at least I learned a lot from writing it. Thanks.
I think it might be that I had trouble installing it, and I was half way to hating it before I had started.
@Dwayne, don't feel bad. I always blame me first then I go and figure out the problem.
Thanks man, I'm more the type to blame myself for how my day goes. Easier to fix that way.
Congrats, John.
I started a novel in Nov, got about 25,000 words written. I have a good idea where it's going to go but then I focused on other projects. I kind of felt like a chicken with it's head cut off considering it's my first novel. I took a step back to slow down the writing, take some times with scenes, do a little more research, a little more thinking.
Tonight is my first class (a 12 person workshop led by a novelist & blogger for the Huff Post) called "Novel in Progress". It's 3 hours every Thursday for the next 10 Thursdays. A little pricey, but a good investment in myself.
I'll be sure to share some tidbits as they come along.
Congrats!
hi all hope you all had a great Christmas and new years !
Congrats
I let my first draft set 3 mouths my second draft does not look much Locke my fist first draft more of an outline 86,000 + words I'm deleted some scenes add others
I believe that dialog is so important i will only work on it second revision third I'll work on narration fourth I'll work on POV and grammar then get it professionally edited. thats my plan so far.
keep at it..