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Next Steps

I wrote the new ending for the novel (ended up being more than one scene). I’ll update the “final” wordcount soon. Now it’s time to get some feedback from readers, and that will determine what the happens next there.

The other novel I stated working on in January will remain on hold for a bit longer. I’m still excited about the idea, but I wasn’t giving it the time it deserved and I need to go back and flesh out my characters and worldbuilding some more.

Unless something stops me, I’m going to participate in National Novel Writing Month. That gives me a few days to solidify my idea before I need to start writing. I’ve always wanted to try NaNoWriMo, and while I don’t exactly have the time, I am between projects, so I might as well give it a go.

There are a few reasons why I want to do this. I need to learn to embrace the bad first draft. I need to write with the intention of rewriting it all later. That might sound backwards, but having just been through a novel revision on a book it’s something I need to try. If you’ve never been there, I’m not sure I can explain it. Besides, I want to have something else done by the end of the year. I have other reasons, but they are more abstract.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, October 26th, 2006 at 12:32 am and is filed under Untitled (1st), Untitled Comic Fantasy, Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

5 Comments

  1. S William Shaw says:
    10/26/2006 at 1:34 am

    I have learned to embrace the bad first draft. It took a while, but I came around.

  2. Carlie says:
    10/29/2006 at 4:17 am

    NaNoWriMo is worth the effort! I found it so exhilarating. I’m looking forward to it beginning

  3. Unfocused Me says:
    12/7/2008 at 3:03 pm

    I think this means you finished the one-pass revision process here, in which case (1) congratulations, and (2) you started NaNo five days later? Color me impressed.

    I’m curious about what happened with the novel — did you send it to beta readers? Shop it to agents or publishers? Trunk it and move on?

  4. Jason Penney says:
    12/7/2008 at 4:27 pm

    @Unfocused Me – Thanks. I did in fact participate (and win) NaNo that year (and the next).

    During the five days between this post and starting NaNo I sent manuscripts to four first readers (with instructions to hold comments/questions until after November). I received feedback from two of them and realized that the book still needed a lot of work. After some soul searching I trunked it. I don’t think my skills were up to what I was trying to do at the time.

    Miracles, the novel I’m revising now, is my NaNo2006 novel.

    Thanks for stopping by!

  5. Unfocused Me says:
    12/8/2008 at 9:01 am

    That has to be hard, to trunk something you’ve spent so much time on. After this pass on Meet the Larssons, I have a couple of readers lined up (including my wife, who doesn’t go easy on me), and I may have to make the same decision when they’re done. Another new experience to look forward to.