After months and months of excuses, fighting the lack of motivation, and letting the overwhelming task get the better of me, I’ve done it. I completed the second draft of my second novel, Sirens.
While there is still much more to do, I’ve taken another major step toward the completion of the novel. I don’t know what else I can do with the story until someone else reads it because I know there’s much more to do. It is FAR from perfect, I can assure you that, even far from as perfect as this story could be but I’m at least closer to getting it there.
As you’re well aware, I hate editing. I wish I had a personal editor to send my work to once I completed it. I’d get a lot more done because I dread editing so once I’m done with something, I sit on it and sit on it and avoid it and avoid it until I force myself, really force myself, to finally trudge through the mud and sometimes shit that I’ve filled the page with. While I march through, clearing the deluge with a small and unskilled shovel, I slowly make progress so the skilled shovel can comb through and really get the crap out of there. That shovel later turns into a chisel and I work my way through the marble underneath to bring out something resembling a literary work.
Since I completed the first draft, I’ve written a few short stories, not a significant number, and I find those easier to edit because the plots and characters are easier to manage. Novels, even short ones like mine, are much harder in that more development of the characters is required and it forces me to comb through and chisel out what needs to make up the character and because it’s difficult for me to create a well-developed character and I’m not entirely sure what a well-developed character is comprised of, it’s also difficult to know if I’ve created one or not. That’s for my editor or beta-reader to tell me because I can’t read my own work and decide if it’s good. I think it is but I need a separate pair of eyes to tell me if I’m on the right track.
My next plan of action is to enlist some beta-readers to tell me what works, what doesn’t, what to work on, what to change, and whether or not my story was enjoyable. I will take note of their suggestions and run from there. Then, I’ll have an editor rip through the remainder and help me figure out if whatever remains is actually a novel. Then, I plan to publish it myself. I’ve tried the query game and perhaps I’ll take another shot at it but after the last go around with it, I find the whole process discouraging and takes away from getting the book out there for its intended purpose: to be read and enjoyed. Maybe I’ll give it a go or maybe I’ll just self-publish and run my own way through. I haven’t decided but you’ll be some of the first to know.
Drew Schroeder 