June 9, 2021
Day 249, Week 35
- Words: 76,985
- Revision v3 Chapters: 30
- Emotional State: It’s good, It’s crap
The Book
The last three chapters need to be revised in round 3 and then I’m putting it way for a week. I need a break from it, not because I’m tired of it (I am a little), but because every time I go back and look for something specific, I see how sad and not very good it is.
I think taking a small break from it and then reading the whole thing front to back in one sitting is the way forward. That will show me how many simplistic, boring sentences I have so that I can fix those. That will show me where it’s jarring or clunky.
I thought I’d done that already – found all the not great spots. But I haven’t. I found more for chapters I just revised. And that’s where it kills me. When I was revising, I thought it was good. When I go back to do something random, I cringe.
I don’t want it to look like a debut novel…but that’s exactly what it is. Why I expect to pound out amazing sentences, deep characters, and an interesting plot in my first novel I don’t know. But I do.
In other news but along the same theme, I’ve decided the first part of my book is the weakest. The FIRST part. The part that lures the reader in and gets them interested in the book. It’s just…not great. And so, I thought about reviving my original 1st revision chapter one, that takes place in a nightclub.
And when I read it, it just feels more dynamic. The same conversations happen, the same emotions are revealed. But it’s more…everything really. So now I’m sending it out to my beta readers to review and help me pick the right one.
I’ve also written my ancillaries, as they call them. The dedication, acknowledgement, glossary, bibliography (because I want people to know who I’m quoting), and taxonomy. I cried twice when writing the acknowledgements. You never know just how much you appreciate people until you put it down on paper.
And I do appreciate them – all of them in ways so deep I can’t express it in words. Why do we do that? Why don’t we say all the things we should say to those we love when we have the chance?
I only hope they read it to the end.
Marketing & Life
For the marketing side of the book, we’re working on beta readers and early praise tactics, which means reaching out to people to ask them to write something nice about my not terrible debut novel. It makes me uncomfortable.
I’ve done cold outreach before. For some of this part of the program, this is exactly what it is. Connecting with people on social media and asking them to do you a favor. I’m not loving it. In fact, I dread it. I can do it, but I’m not looking forward to it. This must be where having an agent comes in handy.
And just…all the marketing. The hustle, the constant presence on social media, the looking for connections to make things happen…it’s exhausting, not very exciting, and not my cup of tea. But if I want people to read this book, it’s what I gotta do.
This is the last week with my current group of writers. I’ve started some of the goodbye calls and have a few more today. Most of them piled on Friday, the last day to have the conversation and submit anything for me to review. My Friday is jammed, but that’s alright. I understand and empathize with where they are at, since I was there 4 months ago.
And then I have 1 week of clean up, which shouldn’t be too heavy, one light week, a week off (yay!), one light week and the next group of writers begins. I have all these plans for my time off, but I wonder if I’ll do all the things. Or if I’ll be in panic mode about the book, be reaching out to loads of people for praise, and also bury myself in reading books or playing videogames.
We’ll see. I do have some plans to frontload my blog a bit, because it’s hard to squeeze it, the book, articles for Medium, all the marketing and life into the same week. It leaves little room for videogames. I just started playing Divinity Original Sin and I really want to explore it in more depth.
But first, finish the book, finish the writers’ session. And maybe then I’ll get a breather.
To read more of my weekly whine fests and writing journal journey posts, click here.