Novel Status Update: It does not suck

So I actually had a rare evening to work on the novel tonight. This is not to say that I didn’t have other work to do, it’s just that I couldn’t cope with the other work and I decided I deserved some time to work on a “me” project.

I would love to say, “well I got x number of words done” or “I wrote y chapters” but I actually just sat here and read through the first 6 chapters.

Would it have been nice to get some more new writing or rewriting done? For sure. But I changed a few plot points and am faced with the prospect of having to rewrite the entire middle section of the book. My utter lack of desire to do this epic rewrite coupled with being crazy busy as made me pretty much not touch the novel in ages (mid June to be exact). In that time I had convinced myself that it was all terrible, that I had no writing talent and that I should become an accountant. Ok, not that last part but you get the idea.

So re-reading was helpful in that, at the end of each chapter I read, I found myself thinking, “This does not suck.” So discovering my book is not total crap was weirdly helpful in getting me back on track.

I also was able to go back through the old stuff and make little tweaks to make sure the new plot points make sense with the old stuff. Most importantly, the story is all fresh in my brain so it is easier to think out the next section of rewrites.

In the end, I just really want to finish this thing as soon as possible. I have been working on it actively for 7 years now and considering I wrote the outline of it when I was about 7 years old, that adds up to pathetic. I have been one solid week of work away from finishing it for far too long now. If I did not have a job and I could just drop everything and work on the novel, this would be helpful.

But I don’t just want to tear through it and have totally crappy draft. I have done so many drafts already that I want to work out the big kinks so that my readers can give me feedback on the best possible version, not just something I threw together. The better version I give readers, the better feedback they can give me is my thought.

The goal? Have finished the book in enough time that it has gone through at least 1 (preferably 2) rounds of readers before November. Then I can get a large chunk of the second book done with NaNoWriMo and already know that the major details in the first book are sewn up. Of course, this has been the goal for the last 3 years running so I have a wall of failed precedent to climb.

Either way, it is nice to know that I am at least remotely on to something. 🙂