After this year, y’all, I need a vacation in the worst way. Preferably somewhere tropical, where I can drink frosty, frothy drinks that taste like coconut and pineapple, and get fanned by two hunky, tanned cabana boys named Rico and Javier.
#nextyear
Instead I just unplugged and spent time with the fam, which is even better.
It doesn’t mean I wasn’t working, mind you. For an author, there is writing work and non-writing work. I call the non-writing work “gestation.”
Over the last ten days, I’ve done a lot of mental preparation to complete this project and start new ones. I’ve released another book, which is the publishing part of my job. That never ends even if I do take the rare week or two off here and there.
But in the creation process, where Nanowrimo lives, it’s all been brainstorming and preparation.
My best friend and I have come up with an idea for a TV show that will demand a lot of research, given the periods of time it is set within. Yes, I did say “periods.” Most of my truly ambitious work involves history, mythology, and all those other wonderful things that are so research-heavy I can’t jump in with both feet like I normally do. Rather, I circle the idea, hand to chin, calculating the best and most efficient course of action to complete the project.
And that’s really the heart of Nanowrimo. Yes, we’re given a month to do “the impossible” – to write a book start to finish – but it’s not so much the time frame in which we do it, but the fact that you actually finish a project at all. Far too many writers are thinkers who just have an idea, and a long list of excuses why they don’t have time to write it.
Nano challenges you to change the placard over from “Want” to “Did.”
The only difference between the writers and the thinkers is that we make the time. We steal those precious minutes or seconds to mull over, plan, consider, debate or brainstorm story ideas that will get us so excited that we pounce all over the very first second to write that presents itself. Yes, there are families and jobs and holidays and commitments, like I’ve shown you with a ten-day hiatus. But you’ll note I didn’t take that hiatus until after I reached the goal of 50,000 words. I still worried about families, jobs, holidays and commitments, particularly the one I made to my manager about this kick-ass TV script idea, but I found time to lay some groundwork for a book I will complete and publish later, probably in time for next year’s Nano. I’ll fill it in later with all the other little goodies and advice that I had outlined to share. I’ll do more research, I’ll make it even more helpful. It’s nowhere near done the way I want it, and so I can shelve it while I work out all the other stuff to make it the kind of book I want it to be.
This takes time. Many times more than it takes to complete a first draft start to finish.
In other words: it’s okay to wait. Sometimes it’s necessary to wait. Remember all those naysayers who griped about Nano, who said that no good book could be written in 30 days so why bother?
Most of the reason they say that isn’t because of how long it took you to write a book. No one cares about that, not really. If they read your book and they think it’s great, they’ll bring their own prejudices with them. If they ask later, and they might, they might be thinking that you had to take ten years to write your masterpiece, just because that’s the accepted wisdom of such things. You can surprise them later, and I hope you do, by producing a strong, well-written, engaging story, maybe even one right after the other, to pop a hole right in that theory, to prove there many more ways up the mountain than just the one, singular, narrow path everyone expects you to follow.
That most of those people who feel that way are NOT writers should tell you how useless their advice truly is. They say it can’t be done because they’ve never done it, and that’s just a baseless standard for anyone. I can’t physically run a mile, but that doesn’t mean that others can’t. The limitations of others don’t define you. (And thank God.)
However, and this is key, this is not to suggest that you shouldn’t take your time to get it right.
By November 28, there are basically two types of Nanowrimoers left. I’m going to take a second to speak to you both.
First up: The “Never-Gonna-Get-It-Finished” Nanoer.
You are the writer who has more to write in the next two days than can ever be written, even if that's all you do. As much as you might like to, you're not going to finish in time to "win" the bragging rights you set out to claim November 1. Generally you fluctuate somewhere between “Why the hell did I sign up for this crap?” and “Eh, maybe next year.” You realized too late just how daunting a task this would be, or underestimated your ability to fit writing a book into your current schedule. Either way, just like the other 80% of Nanowrimoers, it just ain't gonna happen for you this year.
This is perfectly okay. So you didn’t get the 50,000 words done, so what? If you wrote one sentence, you have the perfect excuse to get BACK to the writing, and you don’t need Nano to do it. Granted, it’s a lot more fun when everyone else is sharing your misery to write a book, which is probably why Nano is so successful and popular in the first place. But some stories take time, that’s just how it is. Sometimes your life takes priority. If you need to put food on the table, you need to focus on things that bring in an income, not some “hobby” of writing a book.
This is not a failure. You attempted, and good on ya. It’s hard to write a book, especially on a tight deadline, which is why many people will attempt Nanowrimo, but only 20% or less will actually finish on time.
What’s not okay is using that as an excuse to stop for good.
For you, the gestation period requires that you prioritize your writing so that you may complete your project one day, whether it’s in December, or next November. It’s still up to you to get it done, and you totally can… IF you make it a priority.
I had planned to write a full book in the month of November, just to prove that it can be done. When it comes to a first draft, I’ve gotten the process down to knocking one out in about a month, thanks to the preparation work I use in the gestation beforehand. So I had full faith I could prove this by showing you this process day after day.
Life happened. Other priorities came first, even if it was just taking a day off because I’ve written or completed five books this year and that takes a lot out of a person. This was technically Book Number Six, so I gave myself permission to take some time off and regroup, no matter what my slave-driver of a boss had to say about it.
(She’s such a bitch. I really don’t know how I’ve lived with her day after day for 46 years.)
Sometimes you need time away. Sometimes the story gets so convoluted in your head that you need to step away from it, for clarity – and for sanity. Last year, my Nano project was a page-one rewrite of a “morally ambiguous” YA title sure to be banned in all southern states, particularly Tennessee. It was without doubt the darkest story I have ever written, and I’ve been known to plumb the depths. This book, however, was something I was writing with someone else, whose ideas pushed me even further than I ever wanted to go.
Some folks need a trigger warning to read a book about the things I explored in this title. I needed a trigger warning to WRITE it.
By the end of November I barely limped across the finish line with 50,000 words, but the book was nowhere near done. I didn’t finish it until this year, when the OTHER 50,000 words nearly drove me to therapy.
I needed time to finish that book. And after it was over, I needed space to heal from it. We just signed the publishing contract on it last month, so I’m sure that the rewrites/edits will be coming hard and fast very shortly. I should be ready to deal with it, but odds are… I’m not.
That’s the thing about deadlines. Doesn’t really matter if I feel it or not. I’m expected to finish it on their timetable, not mine.
Nano has been a good teacher in that regard.
But it did take me a LOT longer than I thought to write that book, the longest I’ve taken to write any book in a long, long time. Not because I cared any more about it, but just because that story needed more time to tell. It took more out of me. It raked me across the coals. So I cried “Uncle” whenever I needed to, just to get from one little baby step to the other.
All of this is perfectly okay. It’s normal. Every writer has likely done this, even Mr. “2000-words-a-day” Stephen King. It’s one thing to write, it’s quite another to complete a project, and if you need time to make that happen, then take all the time you need.
It is still on you to make it happen. You can move slowly, but you gotta keep moving if you want to get anything done. True in life, especially true in writing.
It’s okay to say that other things have taken priority when they do. It’s not a bad thing. It’s not an indictment on your character as a writer.
But if you want to be a writer, you have to find your way back to the writing. There is extra time to be found, you just have to make it a point to find it.
Like I said before, I hope you do. There’s no greater feeling on this planet than finishing a project that you created from scratch. It is honestly where we are most godlike. By no surprise, there’s this delirious euphoria that hits whenever you’ve done it that is better than any drug. There’s a sense of accomplishment that no one can take away from you. YOU created something. YOU did it. You can hold hundreds of pages in your hand that prove how much blood, sweat and tears you poured into a project, with characters you love and a story that captivated you so much that YOU couldn’t stay away from it.
That’s a pretty good indication that some reader out there will feel the same. It may sell ten copies, it may sell a million, but as long as one person reads it and loves it, you have done something astounding.
Find your passion first and you will attract the passion of others. That’s just how it works.
So take your time. Circle the idea, your chin cupped in your hand, as you figure out a way to make it happen.
Then Make. It. Happen. Because you totally can, whether or not you could “win” Nano.
There’s always next year, right? And I guarantee if you take some of the hints mentioned, you can prepare yourself for a more successful run in the future. For those who are intrigued by the challenge of writing a book in 30 days, that’s an itch you won’t really be able to scratch until you do it. Nano will be there for you when you’re ready to try again.
(I really, sincerely and truly hope that you do.)
Now for the other 20% or so of you...
The “I-Can’t-Believe-I-Actually-Did-It-Lemme-at-What-Comes-Next” Nanoer.
You have either written all 50,000 words or are in spitting distance, with no quit left in you as you race towards the finish line.
First of all, congratulations. It is no easy feat to write a book at all, much less in 30 teeny tiny days. Good for you for setting a goal and doing whatever you needed to do to make it happen. I know from experience this wasn’t easy, and my hat is totally off to you that you stand tall and strong among the tired and victorious.
You have now reached the delirious euphoria mentioned above. You’re giddy with excitement as you hold your newborn creation in the palm of your hand. (If you haven’t printed out a copy of your baby, I highly recommend you do, just so you can see the fruits of your labor and truly appreciate the journey you’ve just taken.)
Now that you’ve “given birth,” you may think that your time of gestation is over.
Au contraire, mon frère. What you’ve just experienced is the first stage of labor. For those of you who are unaware of the different stages of childbirth, that was just getting your body ready for the hard work ahead of expelling a human life into the world.
Your baby may look complete, but it is not yet ready in the least to face the marathon it must run (and win) against more mature works.
You’ve written a first draft of a book. That’s amazing. But as we’ve covered before, A FIRST DRAFT IS NOT READY FOR PUBLICATION.
People who slam Nanowrimo have one legitimate complaint. People who finish a book, who are stoned silly on that natural high of completion, are far too quick to send off their unpolished babies into a market that is already saturated by a lot of poor writing, incomplete writing and sticky, smelly, goo-covered babies who weren’t yet ready to leave their parents.
Now that you can self-publish in the click of the button, what normally ended up in “slush” piles in every agent/manger/publisher office known to existence now clogs up places like Amazon and the like, making it that much harder for people who “took the craft seriously” to be seen.
Writing a publishable book is only the first step. Next comes marketing, which is a helluva lot harder for most of us.
We fight for every one-click dollar against dozens of new books releasing every single week now.
Writing quickly and publishing quickly doesn’t guarantee you a quick payday. Often you have one shot to make a first impression with your readers, and they’re a lot more unforgiving than you’d think. Unlike your family and friends, who love you and support you and think everything you produce is pure gold simply because it comes from you, anonymous readers just want to read a good book. If they pay money and find that the book is lacking in any way – even if it’s just a matter of something happening that they don’t like – you’re going to get slammed. Hard.
Even if your book is critically hailed as the second coming of Harper Lee, there are still readers out there who can’t stand Harper Lee.
That doesn’t mean the readers are your enemy. The readers will make your career. Have a little respect for them, and for yourself, and for your book, and only present something that you feel is the very best of what you can produce.
I write like a maniac, finishing between five to seven projects a year, and I can tell you with all certainty that a first draft of anything – no matter where you fall as a writer – is NOT the best you can produce.
You want proof?
If you’re still in absolute love with your book, I want you to take the month of December away from it. Put it away. Don’t open it. Don’t read it. Give yourself till January 1 before you revisit it at all.
Not only does this give you some distance from the material, it helps wipe your short-term memory. This is what helps you mentally fill in every gap you may have left in the writing, something that someone new to the material will spot with glaring clarity, but you might miss entirely because after all… you knew what you meant.
Once you get to January 1, give yourself a day to devote to reading your book. Yes, it may only take a few hours for you to read a book for pleasure, but I’m pretty sure that you won’t find this experience as “enjoyable” as you might think you will. This will begin your editing process, and believe me, that process takes excruciating hours of time.
When you’re reading, every single time you have to re-read anything twice to understand what you meant, highlight that passage. It will need to be fixed. Every time you find a typo, highlight it. Every time you find some kind of inconsistency, highlight it. Every time you cringe, because what you read is NOT brilliant, but rather hackneyed or contrived, highlight it.
You don’t have to change any of it as you go, just highlight it.
Then, when you’re done, peruse your book to see how much work is left to be done.
You’re going to need at least another day to do it.
Once you’re done with that, you have a draft that is now strong enough for someone else to read and give feedback. I keep saying it and it’s still true, first drafts are for YOU, not for anyone else. Once you see how much you light up your manuscript like a Christmas tree, you’ll get exactly what I mean by that. You’ll be both embarrassed that you thought it was so awesome, and relieved that you didn’t show it to anyone or worse… publish it for the whole world to see.
Once you have a solid second draft in place, you’re going to need some input from the outside world. I recommend at least five beta readers. (Beta = second.) One or two can be your buddies, particularly if they're avid readers, but unless they’re writers themselves, they can only offer an overview from the point of the reader. Completely necessary, but you do need to get some technical input as well if you’ve never published a book before. Join writing groups, make friends with other writers who participate in groups simply because they want to help out their peers. For people who do such solitary work, we really blossom in community. You’ll see that when you join the different groups, many of which offer peer-to-peer reviews, which, if you're an inexperienced writer, are critical to your process.
This criticism will be way more constructive, just from a professional point of view. Your mom telling you that it’s a sure bestseller is nice to hear and all, but you need to know where the problems are in the work so you can make it as strong as possible. Find people who love and respect you enough to be honest with you, even if it's not what you want to hear.
When these beta readers return your book with their notes, pour yourself a strong drink and consider what they have to say. If more than one person repeats a criticism, you need to address the problem. If they tell you something isn’t clear, pay attention. You are not an objective reader, but they should be. And if they tell you that something doesn’t make sense to them, the error isn’t theirs to correct. If you find yourself at all saying, “What I meant to do here…” then maybe that idea was not completely fleshed out. Instead of explaining yourself, fix the passage so that no explanation is needed.
Once your third edit is complete, you may feel like you have a strong book that is ready for the market. If you’re trying to publish traditionally, you may start sending out queries and getting some interest. If you plan to publish independently, you still need the input of an actual editor. Yes, they’re expensive, but if you’ve never worked with an editor before, you cannot miss this step. It will cost you more in the long run.
If you’re trying to make any money off of your work at all, you will need professional editing. If you’re freelancing or working through a traditional publisher, you will be edited HARD. And this is truly the competition for you when you publish independently. Your competition isn’t the other first draft of another newbie writer who hit publish too soon. That book is going to sit untouched on Amazon the minute anyone realizes that it was haphazardly thrown together and slapped online for a quick buck.
They WILL realize this. Readers are smart. And they don’t particularly like it when they pay for a book only to find out it wasn’t produced with thought and care and respect for whoever might read it later.
No, your competition is the book that was produced with thousands of dollars thrown into the editing and the marketing. You’re expected to meet a certain publishing standard if you want to dance toe to toe with the big boys.
Only a professional editor can get you there, because it’s their job to know what that standard is.
Here is a snapshot of an edited version of my book CHASING THUNDER, which was published through a traditional publisher, just so you can get an idea of the standard you need to meet:
Find yourself an editor who understands the publishing industry and let them have at your book. Word of warning: they will likely hack it to pieces. It’s going to hurt to read it, especially after all the work you put into it already. By Draft Three, you might think that you’ve gotten it as perfect as you can. This is probably true. You’ve gotten it as perfect as YOU can.
Let them guide you the rest of the way. With every editor you work with, you learn something new. Consider this a part of your ongoing education. Pour an even BIGGER drink and just muddle through it.
*Editing tip: You don’t have to change everything they tell you to change. Only change what feels right to you. You’ll know whenever something is made better by the editing, and that’s all you really have to change. It’s still your story and you get to tell it your way. Editing is made to enhance. Unless they’re telling you what readers have echoed, you can pick and choose what to change when it comes to story.
Make your changes accordingly and then put it away for a week or two, maybe even a month, depending on your personal publication schedule. (Hint: It’s not December 1, 2015.)
Once you read through it again, take note of any straggling errors. Even after all these safeguards, you will find errors. People miss things, even when they’re looking for them. Our brains have a funny way of correcting the information it processes.
This is why you need to go over it more than once, and you need to have more than one stranger look it over as well, to catch what you didn’t. This is why a first draft isn’t ready for publication, nor is a second, third or fourth draft.
You may have written a draft in a month, but in order for it to be ready for publication, you’re going to have to double, triple, quadruple that gestation period to get it ready. You’ll come to realize what so many of us have, that writing the book – while difficult and time-consuming – isn’t the real “work” involved in producing a book.
Whether you finished Nanowrimo or didn’t, you’re about to face a whole new gestation period, one with a little more liberal of a timetable than just 30 days. (And thank God for that.)
Take. Your. Time.
As for me, I will be shelving this book while I work on my TV pitches, as well as let a few other ideas that have been circling the runway land so I can get started on them in the new year. In this past month alone, I’ve come up with a new book idea along with a 7-season TV series, which will make the SECOND TV pitch I have to work on, and possibly a web series as well. This is not to mention a second installment of my Wyndryder series, which I had planned to start by January, and four other books I had already planned. (And that doesn’t even count the two scripts I have planned.)
People always wonder what drives me to juggle so much all the time. The short answer? I know I can make these things happen. So I do.
As usual, I’ve got a lot of work in front of me, and so I’ll let this little ditty marinate until summer, when I’ll turn my focus back to it so I can prepare it for publication by next November.
In the meantime, I’ll take lots of notes whenever I think about this project, to add to, to take away from, to make clearer and more helpful, so that the next time I open this file, it will have properly gestated in preparation of “birth.”
When I publish it, you’ll see in clear detail what had to be changed to make it worth publishing “for real” in a book, rather than just some blog installments. The two are very different things.
Trust me when I tell you that you must allow for things to gestate. It’s a process I rigorously follow because I do care about the craft, even if I’m a passionate and devoted Nanowrimoer. Some will suggest that my insane work schedule, which produces quite a bit of content relatively quickly, makes me a hack, and that’s okay that they think that. They’re not who I’m trying to win over anyway. I never could. These are people who are looking for reasons to overlook me, and believe me there are plenty of reasons for that.
For my readers, who have made my career possible even when it was against all the odds, putting me securely in the Top 20% of all writers when the competition was stiff (and getting stiffer by the day,) they clamor for more, more, more and I’m all too happy to give it to them. That doesn’t mean I will just slap anything online for a quick buck. You don’t claw your way into the top 20%, or even the top 10% where I have peaked before, by being a hack. You have to respect the process, respect your books and respect the readers who will buy them.
So take your time. Get it right. The universe will reward you in ways you can’t even imagine.
See you next year, my valiant, faithful warriors of the written word.
We’ll do it all again.
Together.
Started First Draft: November 28, 2015 9:56am PST
Completed First draft: November 28, 2015 11:33am PST
Word Count of first draft: 3,821
Completed revisions: November 28, 2015 10:52am PST
Updated WC: 4,503/65,993
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