Want to talk about your WIP?

I finished my novel, started to query and realized that it sucked. I was forcing it instead of letting it happen. SO, I am in the process of rewriting the entire thing with a different plot. I am hoping this helps make it longer (it was only 60k [about 20-40k too short for the genre]). I have to say that I am much happier with the way the story is going now. The only crappy thing is that it took me a decade to get off my duff and finish the story... I need to get the rewrite done by the end of the summer, I think (I have only been rewriting for about 6 weeks)!

I love my characters so much though that I don't want to let them down!!

I've been working on my memoir, part-time, for about a-year-and-a-half. It's interesting how my writing style has evolved in that much time, yet my voice has remained consistent.

In the midst of that hoopla, I started a how-to book, in which I completed a first draft in about two weeks; I was on vacation and worked on it full-time. Plus, I had an outline. I'm still adding to it. At first though, I didn't think I'd make a decent word-count. But my bullheadedness won't let me succumb to failure. I'm determined to write this book, so I started more research, added more content, and it's looking pretty good.

In all, being a writer isn't good enough for me. I want to be an author.

In all, being a writer isn't good enough for me. I want to be an author.

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Sounds like you are well on your way, darling!

Good thread sean.

I am so happy with my WIP at the moment. A couple of years to get around 12 000 words on paper. Arrived here at AW. Realised that I needed to learn to write and have spent the last few months re-writing it. Good news is that I am now flying along with the rest of it (although I do have a habit of constantly going back over what I have written) and am about 1/5 of the way through. I have also spent a considerable amount of time on plots and sub-plots and am surprising myself at what I'm coming up with.

I do need to add that I get some great inspiration here that keeps me ticking over.

My wife can even see how excited I'm getting with it and has even offered that I go away for a weekend by myself somewhere quiet to get some writing done. What a gem. She knows that I only get a couple of hours max (if I stay up late) to write.

Anyway I'm in the middle of an interrogation scene, so back to it.

JJ

Finished my first draft of my first novel. Took about three months and I'm at 86k. I think it might be too short, and I haven't cut anything yet...

I was going to go and write a short story for a breather before I revised, but I always, always, always have trouble with the "short" part. That and I can never seem to get across what I want in a short. Nobody buys those from me anyhow.

So I looked at some old research notes on a ghost town near me, and then set a scene for fun. I'm now 10k in and only introduced the characters. I'm on my way to WIP number 2 and this one is going to be long.

I'm not revising my first WIP until August 24th. Exactly Six weeks from when I finished. I was beginning to hate that novel even though I was saying goodbye to some of the characters.

I am currently editing my first novel. Most of that is going well, but I decided to take out the prologue, and now I'm trying to figure out how to get the information that was in that into the first few chapters without putting people to sleep. So that's a bit frustrating; but other than that I'm pretty happy with the progress I'm making.

I am also writing my second WIP, which is a sequel. (I know, bit no-no....but I'm having fun and learning a lot, so even if this goes nowhere I think I'll be ok with it!) That one is a blast; I'm still in the 'honeymoon' stage, where I have as much fun reading what I wrote as I do writing more. I love this part...even if the return to reality is a bit painful.

I just wish I had more time to do this!

ccarver30 said:

Sounds like you are well on your way, darling!

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Yeh. Sometimes I get distracted. Last week I had an idea for another how-to book, but I need to finish these two first.

I've given myself a two-month time limit to finish my WIP.

It feels good. I believe it's good. But...(there's always a 'but')...

I felt good about my previous works which I now see as less-than-perfect. So how does one know whether you're looking at a book through rose-coloured spectacles or with more realistic vision?

Or perhaps one improves with each novel? I just wish I knew which level on the 'goodness' scale is good enough to be published! 10? I thought I was there already but obviously not.

Yet.

The writing is going fairly well, coming pretty fast. I've not a lot of time as the day job takes up much of it, but I'm determined to get this draft finished in a few weeks (yes. Really. See my sig -- almost 30K out of 75K, arbitrary goal that may or may not end up being the final count...)

I need this book finished. I need something for my agent to sell because editors are dicking around with the manuscript she's currently sending because they "don't know where to put it on a shelf." Argh. I have to get something sold -- I have things to do and they require money. Like, paying property taxes and stuff.

Probably too much of a rant there but yeah. Finishing this in a few weeks. Seriously. Who needs sleep anyway...

(and yes I know I shouldn't expect this new MS to sell instantly or net me a lot of money fast, but I've got to believe it won't take two or three or ten freaking YEARS like some of the success stories I've read. Other people sell their books in a few weeks. Why can't I? I'm ranting again...)

My WIP is making me kind of crazy right now. Kind of really crazy, I should say. I had planned on finishing the second draft in late June, then shifted my deadline to the first week of July. Now it's the LAST week of July and I still have several more chapters to write. And endings aren't exactly my strong point. This thing just drags on and on. I feel trapped by it, because every night I come home from work and the goal's always the same: BIC, writing as much as I can. Anything else I do feels irresponsible.

There's so much stuff I've put off doing until that glorious first day after I finish this draft. But I didn't think I'd have to delay all that stuff so long. Some of it's small, like buying a DVD I've been wanting, watching my Netflix movies, and getting a new stack of books from the library. But some of it's pretty major, like unpacking the boxes in our new office (my husband and I moved earlier this month). I'm getting tired of scraping my legs on the edges of cardboard boxes every time I need to cross the room.

I like my WIP, and I feel like I'm writing the type of book I'd want to read, but sometimes I worry that it's too quiet for today's market, that the stakes aren't high enough, that I'm not enough of a "typical" reader to write a mass-market book.

In conclusion: sigh!

At the moment, I'm thrilled with my main WIP. Only a few chapters left, and it's been a monster hanging over my head for a LONG time. I'm on track to finish sometime in August. Here's hopin'!

I have to finish the first draft of novel #2 and then spend my time doing re-writes of novel #2 and a third draft of novel #1.
In the meantime, I feel like actually accomplish something by writing poetry.

Just about my writing...

seun said:

Not neccessarily your plot or characters (although feel free). More if it's going well, are you happy with it, your plans for it when it's done - anything along those lines.

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Well, the BdH does not make any progress, because my IW (Inner Writer) is on vacation. Some time ago she made quite a discovery...and after that she has been silent. I have no idea what she is up to, but I know I must keep that "copy the book or any text you choose word for word" -thing. Maybe Gisela will let me know about her plans in the future. I don't know yet. She showed me some...short scenes...but I have not written them down. I do not know if they are anything valuable.

seun said:

I've just finished two short stories which I'm happy with. I'll start rewriting them this weekend and after that, I'm going to start editing a novella I recently finished.

How about you?

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Well, I edited some writing of mine. But that was a long time ago. I just hope I will be able to return to my writing soon.

My WIP was finished as of the 19th. That's the first draft. It's the first novel I've ever finished despite starting about 5 or 6 so I'm pretty proud! It's sitting for two weeks (Aug 2nd) so I have 7 days to go...yea, I'm counting lol! I can't wait to get started with the rewrites and when draft two is finished can send it out to beta readers. When they get back to me and I make my changes I can count it as done...In the meantime I pulled up a novel I started a while ago, thinking it was a sequel. It's not. So I have a lot of work to do Best get back to it!!

I finally got over the morale-crushing rejections of novel #1, and am happily pushing ahead on my WIP. I'm writing 400 - 500 words a day, and I'm beyond satisfied with that. Just like the last time, I'm falling in love with my characters and want to keep them safe and warm. Unfortunately, they're going to have to get shot, beat up, kidnapped, and attacked by zombies before they can live happily ever after. Braaaains!

swvaughn, is that the same WIP you posted in the SYW forum? If so, good luck to you! I loved that one and can't wait to read the finished, PUBLISHED, version

Mine?

Oh, I got stuck for about two months. There was an important scene about to happen and I couldn't figure out how I wanted it to go. My characters were shrugging their shoulders. I was pulling out my hair. Then, very suddenly... whoosh! It all spilled out of me. Writer's constipation, thou hast been defeated by creativity's laxative! I've written over 7k words since last weekend and I'm very pleased with the result. Both me and my characters can get on with our lives! (And I'm 2/3 of the way to my goal! YAY!)

Sassee said:

Writer's constipation, thou hast been defeated by creativity's laxative!

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LOL! It's terrific that you broke through your writer's block. You're well on your way to the end now!

Monster edit of novel #1 was completed last month, but now I have to get off my kiester and crank out a query to get it shopped around.

Serious overhaul of novel #2 is under way. The melodrama sucks so much bilge, it would embarrass even Jackie Collins. It needs to go back to the funny I used in #1.

Big time rewrite of novel #3 is currently fallow to work on #2. I've finally found a source of conflict for #3 to make it flow more naturally.

#4...#4?...is there a #4?...

My new WIP is going...maybe not as well as I'd like, but it's progressing, which is excellent. I know where the story is going, and I know how all the different threads intersect, I'm just trying to figure out one crucial element. Until I figure that out, I'm just spinning my wheels.

I'm in a slump right now. One paragraph per day seems too much.
WIP 1: being beta read
WIP 2: ought to be rewritten, but I'm getting the feeling that it's not going to amount to anything
WIP 3: working on second draft, not getting anywhere quickly
WIP 4: first draft, just started on the climax!
WIP 5: first draft, just plodding
Once the first drafts get done, I'm giving myself a vacation.

just about got WIP 1 polished off. I'm so glad to finish it! I'm just about sick of it now.

WIP 2 is started but still getting planned out. For example, I know she will kill this other character but I can't figure out why or how yet (got the where and when and what happens next, though).

I'm chugging along and somewhere between obsessed, aggravated, and thrilled.

Oh, yeah, and the idea for WIP 3 hit me during a pleasure drive through the country.

I'll be busy for years.

WIP 1: There was a random plot twist last night, so I'm re-excited about writing it.
WIP 2: It's taking forever to come up with the different characters...
past WIP 1: Got to chapter 16 in edits and got bored...I'll get back to it sometime
past WIP 2: Rewriting...slowly
past WIP 3: Rewriting (wow, it's a theme!) and writing poems for it. 5/22 done

I was trucking along pretty well, and than I too was struck by a chapter that had me stumped. I knew "what" I wanted in it, but was not happy with the "how" I was getting it in there. On top of that, I ended up shaving off about 2k worth of material because I decided to go another direction in a chapter.

“How to get over this?” you might be wondering - I have turned to reading other peoples books - well and also creating a formal chapter by chapter outline that has allowed me to map out every chapter with the who, what, when, where, and lodes of internal and external conflict (were you expecting s how in there?). Some chapters as of yet are still just bare-bones, but I would say that 80% of the chapters I have planned (roughly 38-ish) have some content in it.

On top of that, I have been making some notes for another book that I dreamt up – as well as a scene here and there that I thought would be cool but are as of yet unassigned to any particular project.

The beginning of August will see me picking up my writing cap once again and chasing the dragon once more - even though I will have at least three more books of James Clemens' The Banned and the Banished series to get through .