Fin!

Ok, I finally went back to the story and cleaned up the ending chapters. I did it after reading "The Fountainhead" (I've found that reading helps send me back into writing mode). Besides the problems mentioned before though, I remembered another problem I had with finishing this book: other stories kept bugging me! There's this big project I have planned and little by little, ideas and pieces of it come to me and it's almost demanding that I concentrate on building it, abandoning all other writing tasks.

But a funny thing also happened recently: I miss my first story. You know, the one I wrote and hid away because of its atrociousness. It started nudging me. It wants me to come back to it. It wants me to finish it (had the same problem with the ending chapters). So maybe it won't turn out to be a trunk novel after all? I don't know.

In the meantime, I'm okay with what I cleaned up on the one I was working on, but there are still some unfinished parts. Because I want to expand it beyond the 60k, I came up with a few incidences that I currently have in pieces. I need to iron those out and then perhaps I will finally feel happy about it and feel that it's complete.

Another thing: beta 2 said she loved my story (I mentioned that the important thing was that she liked it and she corrected me)! She didn't get to read the end and it would be too much for me to ask her to reread it in order to get back into it so that she could read the end so I ended up just summarizing the end for her. Oh well. I think beta 1 won't get to finish either- she's on maternity leave and looks like she plans to just hold on to the last set of chapters she got for whatever reason, but it doesn't matter- they both expressed a great appreciation/affection for the work, and neither of them are the type of person who just lies to please people which is why I picked them; I knew they'd be brutally honest if they had to be.

So anyway, I'm still almost finished with this project I guess. A little further along but essentially in the same place. I think I will sit myself down and finish it this week. I feel lonely after finishing "The Fountainhead;" I either need to read or write to counteract it.

Fin?

Gah!
So one of my readers caught up to me about a week and a half ago and has the last couple of chapters to go (24-28). But I haven't given them to her because I haven't fixed them yet and I'm having a problem with it.
At first I thought I would have a week of fixing while the readers read the given section over a week, but beta reader 2 zipped through the middle to almost-end section faster than I expected, leaving me little time to revise.
The thing is, the climax has been reached, so she's not pestering me for the last couple of chapters; the major things have happened and/or been explained, and if she had had the last couple of chapters, she would have probably gone straight through the last section she read to the end since I think it flows that way and would pull the reader to just go on and finish.
So anyway, I'm having trouble finishing it. The raw material is there from the first draft written in November, and so far, I have improved some of the chapters while some remained pretty much the same, but most of it is virtually unchanged from the first draft; in fact, I have rewritten only one chapter so far, and rearranged another. But this last group seems to require a lot fixing. Or perhaps that's just how I'm seeing it, making a mountain out of a molehill. I just feel there should be more, but the story keeps telling me it's a 60k story; I doubt heavily I can squeeze even another 10k out of it, much less 20-30 k for an average-length first time novel.
So I guess I just have to listen until my subconscious says otherwise, and go ahead and strip the last couple of chapters to their essence, then add on if necessary.

I just realized all I just said doesn't necessarily go together and make for a cohesive blog entry.

Anyway, basically, I'm stuck on this ending part. Come on inspiration! Visit me this weekend!

Oh yeah, beta reader 1 finally got 11-15 yesterday. After that, she has 16-23, then will be in the same place as beta reader 2, but lucky for br1, there will be no wait time like there was for br2. As soon as she's done with a given section, I can hand her the next.

Beta Progress

So I've been sending the book to my betas in parts and here's how it's going:

My two betas got and were done with chapters 1-6 at around the same time and therefore received chapters 7-10 at the same time. But one has far surpassed the other- Beta 1 is still on 7-10 while Beta 2 has finished that group, received 11-15 (Monday), finished that group in one day (in one sitting over a very short period of time), demanded more, and has received 16-19 (Wednesday). Now I'm struggling to hurry up and polish up the next set, especially since I wanted 16-23 to be read as one since it's part of the flow. But that's ok- I can't control how readers read it and break it up anyway.

Both Betas really liked 1-6, but I guess 7-10 is a bit dull since one is still on it while the other said that it's not "as hype" as the first group but it was understandable. Still, she felt she was getting to know the characters instead of just puzzling over my "hook" event. As for chapters 11-15, Beta 2 said: "I love it!!" So I guess the pattern I've created so far is: intense!-lull-intense!-lull. And yup, thinking about it now, this next set is intense!, leading up to the climax. Then it's the lull again- tying up everything in a neat bow. So basically, I'm almost finished! And one of my readers is right along with me!
I'm still excited about this although I've calmed down a bit and not liking the pressure to finish up as much as before. I really wish I was able to fully finish it before starting the betas on it which is what I was technically supposed to do I guess, but I needed the motivation. And damn, it's been working!

Snarl

Ok- I was supposed to have given chapters 11-15 or so to the betas at the beginning of this week, but I've run into a tiny problem. Yes, it's fine enough that I can give the next group to them anyway, but I feel really unhappy with chapter twelve and I'm still trying to come up with a way to fix it. If only it were chapter fourteen or fifteen I had this problem with, then I could at least keep them going on it while figuring it out but alas. And I can't just give them one chapter, even though eleven is a longer one.

My mistake was not printing it out to look at it I'm afraid; looking and looking at a screen is not quite the same. I also think I might need to read the rest of it through to see what else I can insert.

Gosh I don't want them to get bored and forget about it; I need them to stay on it. But I guess that's what will happen with actual readers. There have been many times I've begun books, put them down for a period, only to find that I've lost interest once I've picked it up again.

Oh well *grumble grumble*. I'll keep thinking about it. Although with this Anna Nicole Smith thing and the Grammy's tomorrow and my desire to do a lot of reading this weekend, I'm not sure I'll be able to figure it out by Monday. But that's my deadline- I need to have these ready by Monday if not tomorrow! And then I have the week to work on the next set.

At least I can see submission won't happen this month; I'm still researching that part of the process anyway. And I've got to get a query letter together (although it's just one page).

March I say; by March the work should be out there. No, I don't plan to keep pushing it back- this work is vibrating with life, ready to jump out of my hands- it can't wait to- unlike my first novel which is quite content to sleep wherever it is; a trunk novel that first one.

WIP 2

So I've been working on the second novel I wrote (for last year's NaNoWriMo) and preparing it for submission to agents/publishers as a result of the catalyst of *drum roll please* beta readers!

I set beta readers 1 and 2 on the work last week, with chapters 1-6. I gave them chapters 7-10 for this week.
So far so good I guess, they seem to like it. But I'm panicking just a little because it's not one-hundred percent complete; I still have some gaps to fill, research to do etc. and the readers are gaining on me!
That's one of the beauties of setting beta readers on it- they make you work faster!

I can actually see myself submitting this story to agents/publishers this month! Whoah nelly! What an exciting thought.

Is this the year?

I have always been a writer- of songs, short stories, fanfic, poetry...you name it, I wrote it. I have also always seen myself as an author, always imagined myself writing a book someday, having it published. I started writing my first book in fifth grade but I never finished any of the ones I started since then until last year (2006).
So now that I've written a book- two actually- it's time for part two: editing and getting it published. This blog will track my journey toward that goal.
Like I said, I'm still in the editing/re-writing stage of both books. The first one (finished in April 2006), I actually have a strong desire to rewrite from a whole new point of view, a character that does not even exist in the first version. The second, written over the month of November for National Novel Writing Month is actually in better condition than the first- it just needs some bulking up and a little rearrangement (so it seems thus far). I can see myself "finishing" the second one before the first, but we'll see. Right now, I'm just doing a bit of tidying up before my first beta reader gets to it.