So You Think You're Done With Your Novel
This is what happened to me the last few weeks. My book. Once you come close to finishing your novel, you just zero in on the prize and go forward. In your head you're about to make history or better yet change the world through your fiction, so you have to get done as soon as possible. At least that’s what you think. Keep in mind this wasn't the first, second or third draft. Man, I was making life changing decisions here. This meant I couldn't blog or do any interviews or reviews. Of course, since I'm back, it must mean the obvious. That's right. I'm done. In Blackness is complete and now I can—that's right—blog about it.
Let me just recap the experience I just had. Most of you will find it no surprise, but it’s always worth venting about. So I got my third draft done and then said to myself, okay, time for another reader and let me hire a proofreader. The beta reader got done and had marked up the entire manuscript and gave me handwritten notes about main issues per chapter, not for every chapter but most of them. There were two other pages of notes of other stuff. And then the proofreader sent me back comments in suggested track changes. My pages bled red and blue.
People, it took me months to make it to the end. In the last few weeks I finally made it through, just so I could start another draft, just so I could read the whole thing again, and then all over again. I thought it wouldn’t stop, like I was obsessive compulsive or something. It would be four in the a.m. and I’d be scrolling, thinking to myself, Well is the alien skin like leather or actually leather and is there a difference? I’d be outside in my driveway thinking, If I were an alien would I rip their heads off or cut their heads off? I stayed up all night pondering, restructure vs simple deletion, build a character vs eliminate that same one. I thought to myself, do I go to work today or zone out in front of this neon screen on my path to self-worth. I was functioning on two or three hours of sleep, Tyler Durden like, simply staying in the groove, not able to be budged. I took brakes to watch movies, urinate, attend my writer’s group, hydrate and send emails about writing, urinating, my writer’s group and watching movies.
But guess what.
In between all the drafts, I beta read for someone and started writing another novel. This one about some guy who realizes he has super powers. Remember that show The Greatest American hero? It’s kind of like that but the protagonist is about fifty years old. Yeah, he joins the community college basketball team. I’m reading three books right now. Don’t know how to not be reading. I feel…literary.
This is what I learned about writing, this time. Sometimes I think your next piece of work is a reaction to editing your last piece of work. For instance, my previous novel, The Flesh Statue, was long for me. Over 100,000 words. The time it took to edit was immense. This last one is a crisp 74,000 words plus. Do you know how many less transitions there were, how many less character’s there were to deal with? And I mean characters on the page, not a personality developed for the sake of storytelling.
I learned that after a while, writing isn’t just thinking. It’s a physical thing. I had to buy a new chair because mine was not doing the job anymore. My ass would lose a battle with that thing nightly. My monitor is a 32 inches. As I type this I’m at 120 percent on the screen. I can see the page from across the room, because staring at the screen starts to bug the hell out of me. I can’t afford to squint.
I learned that formatting is really part of editing. Don’t try to tell me different. Try to electronically distribute your book. After we talk epub vs .mobi vs blah blah ahhh then we can have that conversation. I dare someone to tell me they format their paper book the same way they format their ebook. I friggin dare you. Oh my god, I dare you.
Now I need to advertise.
But that’s a whole other entry totally. See you in a week. I might have something for you.
U.L. Harper is the author of In Blackness, The Flesh Statue and Guidelines for Rejects.
Guidelines for Rejects
Let me just recap the experience I just had. Most of you will find it no surprise, but it’s always worth venting about. So I got my third draft done and then said to myself, okay, time for another reader and let me hire a proofreader. The beta reader got done and had marked up the entire manuscript and gave me handwritten notes about main issues per chapter, not for every chapter but most of them. There were two other pages of notes of other stuff. And then the proofreader sent me back comments in suggested track changes. My pages bled red and blue.
People, it took me months to make it to the end. In the last few weeks I finally made it through, just so I could start another draft, just so I could read the whole thing again, and then all over again. I thought it wouldn’t stop, like I was obsessive compulsive or something. It would be four in the a.m. and I’d be scrolling, thinking to myself, Well is the alien skin like leather or actually leather and is there a difference? I’d be outside in my driveway thinking, If I were an alien would I rip their heads off or cut their heads off? I stayed up all night pondering, restructure vs simple deletion, build a character vs eliminate that same one. I thought to myself, do I go to work today or zone out in front of this neon screen on my path to self-worth. I was functioning on two or three hours of sleep, Tyler Durden like, simply staying in the groove, not able to be budged. I took brakes to watch movies, urinate, attend my writer’s group, hydrate and send emails about writing, urinating, my writer’s group and watching movies.
But guess what.
In between all the drafts, I beta read for someone and started writing another novel. This one about some guy who realizes he has super powers. Remember that show The Greatest American hero? It’s kind of like that but the protagonist is about fifty years old. Yeah, he joins the community college basketball team. I’m reading three books right now. Don’t know how to not be reading. I feel…literary.
This is what I learned about writing, this time. Sometimes I think your next piece of work is a reaction to editing your last piece of work. For instance, my previous novel, The Flesh Statue, was long for me. Over 100,000 words. The time it took to edit was immense. This last one is a crisp 74,000 words plus. Do you know how many less transitions there were, how many less character’s there were to deal with? And I mean characters on the page, not a personality developed for the sake of storytelling.
I learned that after a while, writing isn’t just thinking. It’s a physical thing. I had to buy a new chair because mine was not doing the job anymore. My ass would lose a battle with that thing nightly. My monitor is a 32 inches. As I type this I’m at 120 percent on the screen. I can see the page from across the room, because staring at the screen starts to bug the hell out of me. I can’t afford to squint.
I learned that formatting is really part of editing. Don’t try to tell me different. Try to electronically distribute your book. After we talk epub vs .mobi vs blah blah ahhh then we can have that conversation. I dare someone to tell me they format their paper book the same way they format their ebook. I friggin dare you. Oh my god, I dare you.
Now I need to advertise.
But that’s a whole other entry totally. See you in a week. I might have something for you.
U.L. Harper is the author of In Blackness, The Flesh Statue and Guidelines for Rejects.
Guidelines for Rejects
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