I finished my book ... again!
You know how you get it done the first time and then you realize you're 20,000 words shorter than industry preferences? Everyone's been there, I'm sure.
So yeah, I expanded the ending, didn't let it wrap up so quickly or neatly at first, and tinkered around in a few other places that I thought could use it.
And the timing was perfect, because it had almost finished moving through my writing group. The pressure to submit six new pages every two weeks (not a lot, I know) was just enough to keep me writing my extra chapters so that the group wouldn't get to the gap I was filling before I'd filled it. They'd almost gotten to the point where I was adding chapters when I started, so I only had a few pages lead on them when I started adding pages. Just the right amount of deadline pressure, thanks.
I'm going to give another copy to my beta reader (Who honestly is my mom, bless her heart, and who DID tell me I'd rushed the ending the first time, but I ignored her. Kids!) and let it finish its progress through the writing group, and then I'm going to stop tinkering and get back to querying. Because of COURSE I queried too soon the first time. (Again, who doesn't?)
I'm going to laugh my ass off if I come back again and decide to tear it apart and start over or something. I want to be done with this one and on to the next. It may never be my first published book, but I want it to be my first book, as compared to my only book, and that means it's time to start on the next one.
You know how you get it done the first time and then you realize you're 20,000 words shorter than industry preferences? Everyone's been there, I'm sure.
So yeah, I expanded the ending, didn't let it wrap up so quickly or neatly at first, and tinkered around in a few other places that I thought could use it.
And the timing was perfect, because it had almost finished moving through my writing group. The pressure to submit six new pages every two weeks (not a lot, I know) was just enough to keep me writing my extra chapters so that the group wouldn't get to the gap I was filling before I'd filled it. They'd almost gotten to the point where I was adding chapters when I started, so I only had a few pages lead on them when I started adding pages. Just the right amount of deadline pressure, thanks.
I'm going to give another copy to my beta reader (Who honestly is my mom, bless her heart, and who DID tell me I'd rushed the ending the first time, but I ignored her. Kids!) and let it finish its progress through the writing group, and then I'm going to stop tinkering and get back to querying. Because of COURSE I queried too soon the first time. (Again, who doesn't?)
I'm going to laugh my ass off if I come back again and decide to tear it apart and start over or something. I want to be done with this one and on to the next. It may never be my first published book, but I want it to be my first book, as compared to my only book, and that means it's time to start on the next one.
