The Nap Story
My NaNoWriMo novel last November was about a man who needs to take a nap every three hours or else he will die. Now that the holidays are basically over I started taking a look at this first draft.
My first thought after I finished on November 30th was that it was going to need to do a lot more work to fix this one. I wanted to shake it off and start over because while I once again crossed the finish line of 50 thousand words, it didn't come out the way I wanted. I didn't make the hard choices that would have made the rewrite easier. I spent too much time worrying about explaining the man's condition. I didn't milk the comedy potential. And blah, blah, blah...First Draft Problems!
But then again, maybe it's not as bad as I thought. Maybe parts can be salvaged. Maybe it has a framework I can work with. It's just so hard to go back when there was so much pain the first time. My last book, Pain Center, was one of the rare stories that pretty much came out as intended. I knew as soon as I finished that the editing process was going to be smooth. But this new one is a reminder that the process is not always this way.
Anyway, I'll be back at work on it next week. Lots of possibilities. I'll keep you updated.
David G. Cookson is the author of Pain Center: the Novel! which is available here: http://davecookson.tripod.com/PainCen...
My first thought after I finished on November 30th was that it was going to need to do a lot more work to fix this one. I wanted to shake it off and start over because while I once again crossed the finish line of 50 thousand words, it didn't come out the way I wanted. I didn't make the hard choices that would have made the rewrite easier. I spent too much time worrying about explaining the man's condition. I didn't milk the comedy potential. And blah, blah, blah...First Draft Problems!
But then again, maybe it's not as bad as I thought. Maybe parts can be salvaged. Maybe it has a framework I can work with. It's just so hard to go back when there was so much pain the first time. My last book, Pain Center, was one of the rare stories that pretty much came out as intended. I knew as soon as I finished that the editing process was going to be smooth. But this new one is a reminder that the process is not always this way.
Anyway, I'll be back at work on it next week. Lots of possibilities. I'll keep you updated.
David G. Cookson is the author of Pain Center: the Novel! which is available here: http://davecookson.tripod.com/PainCen...
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