I started writing in January.

[CrispyQ]

I pounded out five chapters, about 25,000 words and then came to a screeching halt. A panster I'm not. My story started about two months earlier than it should have. So I backed up all those words to my flash drive & bought some index cards. I sketched out some scenes, new ones (!), & got a better grip on my plot. Yesterday I pounded out a new Chapter 1 that is so much better I cannot believe it!

I feel good!

Today, Chapter 2.


I found this very inspiring:

Get through a draft as quickly as possible. Hard to know the shape of the thing until you have a draft. Literally, when I wrote the last page of my first draft of Lincoln’s Melancholy I thought, Oh, shit, now I get the shape of this. But I had wasted years, literally years, writing and re-writing the first third to first half. The old writer’s rule applies: Have the courage to write badly.

– Joshua Wolf Shenk

[CherokeeDem]

1. I have a novel....

undergoing last edit and hopefully will be sent to an agent within a couple of weeks. (Believe me, no delusions... ready to self-publish.)

I learned the hard way... about six chapters into a 22 chapter sci-fi novel, I was ready to scream.... stopped right then... and made an outline. Didn't always follow it ...something I planned for chapter 11 might show up in 14 but getting organized was a good thing,

I still have trouble just writing a draft without stopping to make corrections... just can't seem to do that.

Good luck on your novel... getting that first chapter out of the way is a good feeling!

[CrispyQ]

2. Good luck!

I hope you land an agent and don't have to self publish. I know a lot of people think that's the way to go & I wouldn't rule it out completely if I had a finished manuscript. But the self published novels I've read, could have benefited from a professional editor.

I know a self-published author who runs his words through his mother first, who is an avid reader. Then a plot editor and finally, a line editor, and still the comments on his book are that he should have gotten an editor.

[CherokeeDem]

3. I am very lucky....

My editor is my closest friend, who is a linguist and an English major. She is an exceptional editor but doesn't do it for anyone but me and a couple of other friends. The rest of the time, she teaches English in Paris. So I know my grammar will be fine, and I've edited and edited and taken out words and rewritten sentences, but I'm certain it will never be enough for an agent. I'm sure there will be a lot more if I get an agent to bite.

Another good friend of mine, who is a published fantasy author, told me the best advice she was given by another writer was put the manuscript down. Every time you look at what you've written, you will find something to change. At some point, you just have to say you're done. That is not easy!

All I know is published or not, I love the process of writing, just so much fun!