I have a goal: publication!

I’ve written novels on and off since I was ten, but I’ve never been serious about getting anything published. Now, I’ve decided to get serious. I figure if I don’t get serious it won’t happen, so…


My goal is get a novel published. Trade published, not self-published—I’m way too lazy for that.


And after that another one. But I’ll focus on the first for now.


I’m not in a huge rush, but I do plan to keep up the forward momentum, while keeping enjoying the process of writing. Right now I’m 35k into the first draft of a new novel. My first subgoal is to finish this draft by the end of June 2016. I was aiming for 100k to 120k, but I think it’s likely to run long. Never mind. I can fix that in revision.


I’ll come back to update this thread as I make progress. Consider this my public commitment!

Now, off to write.

KiwiChick


ETA: I have refined my goal, thanks to leifwright's wisdom. My goal is to write the best book I possibly can at this point in my life, research the publishing industry thoroughly, catch an influential agent who is crazy about my book, get published by a reputable publisher that puts real resources into marketing and distribution for my book, and get read by lots of people who have paid for my work.

blacbird said:

Yeah. Me too.

Many tries.

Hasn't worked.

caw

Click to expand...

As long as you're still trying, you can still get there. Maybe I'll never get published, but I'm certainly going to try.

Cyia said:

Ignore the bird. He likes to sit on the mantle screeching Nevermore at the hopeful people.

Click to expand...

Haha, if that little put me off then trying to get published would definitely be a hopeless dream.

blacbird said:

Yeah. That's what agents and editors do.

Click to expand...

blacbird, I saw on your thread that you just had a partial rejected. That sucks, sorry. Sending lots of hugs and hope for interest from lots of other agents your way.

Thanks for the encouragement, guys.

Brian, I know the first draft is only the first of many drafts. I'm actually really excited about the chance to go back over my work and try to make it realise my intentions. Hopefully I'll be able to hang on to that enthusiasm when I actually get to that stage. In my other life I've had publications, some of which have taken five or more years from inception to realisation, so I think I have the patience and persistence to stick this out.

I like that you mention books on the craft of writing. I love craft books! I have dozens, and I've read them all multiple times. I use them as inspiration when I get to a sticking point with my writing, or just for a boost. Lots of them are so beautifully written that they're just a pleasure to read, as well as being informative.

I saw you mention Wonderbook in another thread, so a few days ago I ordered it from Amazon. I'm not in US, so I'm still waiting for it to arrive. It looks gorgeous. I'm so excited!

KiwiChick

Why I’m plotting more and pantsing less

Partly in case anyone is curious, but more as a record for me of how my process works (or doesn’t work), I’m going to post about decisions I make in writing and attempting to publish my book(s). So here’s the first: why I went with more plotting and less pantsing than usual.


In the past, I’ve started writing as soon as I have a general idea of the main characters and their central problems in the plot, the beginning, and the ending.


I have completed a first draft of a novel before, but more often I find that I stall at around 15k words. I think this is where the beginning that I have planned ends, and I wade out into unknown waters. Did I mention I’m scared of deep water?


At 15k I might have a pretty good idea of where I want to end up, but no idea how to get there. If I keep writing, it tends to veer into “stuff happened” territory, which makes for a first draft that requires a tremendous amount of rewriting.


So this time I decided to make a more detailed plan before I started writing. I think it almost worked, except that eventually I got so bogged down in planning that my forward momentum ground to a halt. I threw up my hands and just started writing based on:
* a fairly good idea of what was going to happen in the first 7-10 scenes;
* a reasonable idea of the main plot points through the middle of the story; and
* a concept of what was going to happen at the end, if not exactly how.


I did stall briefly at around 15k (when I got through those first scenes I’d planned). So I stopped, plotted out the next set of about seven scenes in detail, and started writing again. I finished these, and stalled again around 30k. This time it only took me two days to plan another ten scenes and get writing again. I feel like things are progressing, and I’m very happy with it.


I’ve also discovered that there are some things I can’t know until I’m actually writing. For example, I can have an idea for a character, but when I start writing him he turns out different and better. So perhaps trying to plan everything in advance would actually be counterproductive for me.


I know outlines can be hazardous if you adhere to them too rigidly, and I am open to my plan changing as I go along. For example, I realised as I wrote that a character I’d planned to kill early on as motivation for the MC actually needed to live, and that a character the MC was going to save couldn’t be saved in that way. These changes made the plot as a whole hang together much better. I’m sure there will be more such changes that pop up as I go along.


My hope is that my (somewhat) more extensive planning this time will mean less structural editing is required after I finish my first draft. We’ll see how that pans out.


KiwiChick

When to start editing

It seems there are two main options for when to start editing: after the first draft is complete, or sometime before that. I can see pros and cons to both, but for my current book I’ve decided not to edit until I have a complete first draft.


I made this decision for two main reasons. First, I expect the structure of the story will change at least a bit and possibly a lot, so this way I avoid spending a long time polishing a scene only to throw it out. Second, this means I’ll complete at least a first draft sooner, which is encouraging because it feels like progress.


On the downside, I’ve been away from writing for some time, and I’ve lost my confidence (if I ever had any) to edit my prose into something anyone would want to read. There would be something nice about polishing up a couple of scenes to prove to myself that I could do it and boost my confidence. But maybe I can’t do it yet, and will only get to do be able to do it through the process of editing this (and possibly many additional) book(s). If that’s how it is, I’m okay with that too. I’m excited to work on my editing skills.


For the record, my current word count in my WIP is 40,337.


KiwiChick

jennamarie said:

Hi KiwiChick! I relate to a lot of what you mentioned in a few previous posts here. I finally gave myself the concrete goal of getting published too! It took me a while to commit...
I have a completed ms that I've gone through and edited line by line, and revised a few times. Each time I go back though, I find myself making more changes and edits - I don't know if I'll ever feel that my ms is completely ready to see the world!
That's partly why I've joined this AW community - I'm hoping I can learn from others and get some tips/critique. We'll see how it goes!

Click to expand...

Hi jennamarie!

It sounds like you're much further along than I am. I'd love it if you wanted to drop back from time to time with updates on how you're going.

Once you get to 50 posts, the Share Your Work forum is a great way to get fresh eyes on your work and sometimes to spot issues that you were entirely unaware of.

Karmi W said:

Hi KiwiChick, Jennamarie! Good luck with your ms, and to everyone here who's hard at work writing and revising their ms, the best of luck! I'm new here; this is my first time to comment. I'm also working on a novel (historical romance), and I'm almost done with the first draft. I can't wait for March when my toddler is once again in school and I can get back to work. My goal this year is to start looking for an agent after July.

Click to expand...

to AW, Karmi. Look around--there's heaps of useful information and a whole bunch of friendly, helpful people.

Well done on nearly completing your first draft. That's a huge deal! What historical period is it set in?

I'd love to hear your updates of how you go finishing the draft, revising, and agent-hunting.

Karmi W said:

What is your novel about?

Click to expand...

I write fantasy set in an alternative universe. I'm still working on my pitch for this book, but it's about dragons. I hope I can say something more inspiring than that in a few months.

Karmi W said:

I like fantasy, but I haven't read much of it lately. I'm planning to change that though. Just the other day I was looking for fantasy novels and saving them on my Wish List on Amazon. Do you have any favorites?

Click to expand...

I've actually been thinking lately that I need to find some recent fantasy books that I love. I heard great things about The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, but it left me cold. I think it was a very good book, just not the kind that I fall in love with.

My all-time favourites are pretty old now: David Eddings (The Belgariad, The Malloreon, The Elenium, The Tamuli), Katharine Kerr (The Deverry Series), Raymond E Feist (The Riftwar Saga).