Finishing the novel

[butterfly133]

Okay lovely MNers
I have a novel that's about 1/3 complete - it's been hanging around for years. I have now made a plan to finish it! I have 3 sessions per week where I can really get stuck in - one of them being now....it will be different each week due to rota and family but there are def 3 session per week of 3 hours. Then there's any extra time. (I'm beginning to think I need to use my commute to do something as well, though that seems a bit overwhelming).

the structure is all there so I do know where it's heading, I just need to put bum on chair and do it. I hope some other "finishers" might want to join this thread and update?

My hope is to have it finished by end of September. Yikes! I really must sit down for the 3 sessions per week because I have previously done it in chunks and then I've had to reacquaint myself and ended up wondering "why" I made certain storyline decisions, only to go through the process again and make the same one!

so fingers crossed for more continuity and focus.

now I must tear myself away from browsing MN.....

Hope you don't mind if I join this thread?
I have 9,000 words written of my first attempt at a novel, and try to write for 1 hour a day. When I first started it I was full of enthusiasm but now I find myself procrastinating more and more....I am absolutely determined to finish it though!

I think the initial shine of a new project always wears thin at some point (usually around the middle). This is when you need to dig in and get the job done.

That said, if a project loses its shine very early on, it may be sign that it doesn't have legs.

I'm terrible for getting a million and one ideas and always assuming each one is brilliant. Only to discover relatively early that it's not going to work. I call these my 'twinkles'. They're very alluring, but often going nowhere.

Planning is a good way to sort out the twinkles from the real stars. If you plan out the whole project and can see that it will fit together as whole piece and it still excites you, then it's a keeper. If not, it might just be a twinkle and need discarding.

yay for more people on the thread!

Today is a longer session day so I will post when I've done it.

okay, I had a longer session. It wasn't that productive but it's another thing checked off the to do list!

Yesterday wasn't very productive for me.

DD had her last GCSE so I did some ferrying. Then I had a tutorial with a student (I work part time at university) which meant an hour's travel to get there, then he was late so by the time I got home the afternoon was gone!

I did a bit of editing on Project 3 but that was it.

Today is going to be better!

some days you just can't - in my humble opinion! today is a longer day at work, so nothing for me except whatever I do on the commute.

I realised yesterday that the commute is probably only good for rough planning.

Hello, I'm trying to write a novel too - although I keep on changing tack - I think maybe it is a confidence thing (I think a lot of what I write is crap.)

I also write for my day job (copywriting and some freelance journalism) so it seems difficult to balance it with that. After a hard day's tryinbg to make someone's product sound good I just want to be away from the computer.

Would love to be on this thread - especially if we could motivate one another to write.

Love what wordfactory said about the ability to finish. Will keep that in mind. It's like a marathon. A hard scary rocky marathon with lots of wrong turns.

Wordfactory - do you have a blog about writing? I love reading author's blogs x

butterfly journeys etc can also be very good for mental planning.

I do very few drafts of my work but if think one of the reasons is that I play my scenes through in my mind endlessly. By the time I actually wrote them down, it's probably been redrafted several times.

Sorry, just realised that looked like I was asking you to out yourself. I don't want you to do that.!

travelling I don't have a blog.

I used to run some monetised blogs but the arse fell out of the market.

My agent thinks I should set up a new social media platform to run alongside the creation of project 3. But they're incredibly time consuming.

DD thought a vlog where the MC is the vlogger but it would be incredibly time consuming and expensive if it wasn't to look amateurish.

I love the idea of a blog with the MC's voice...that sounds amazing.

I don't know if people would be interested in setting weekly goals on here maybe and then reporting back if they met them or if life got in the way too much? With me, saying I'll do something means I will...probably. Do other folk find the same?

Joining thread. Am at 40,000 words so really need a push to finish. In a v similar position with most of you re. Day job and kids but onwards we go.
Word, I love your posts about writing,they're always v wise.
I need to write more scenes and stop editing existing ones. Goal is 2000 words by Friday night.

travelling goals are important I think. Be they word count. Or chapters. Or getting to a certain point in the plot.

I must admit I have daily goals ( which I don't always meet - often a bit ambitious).

But then this is my day job too. For those fitting it in around a day job it may not be possible.

That said I would really recommend dropping by a WIP as often as possible ( daily if it's doable). If you leave a long gap it seems to take ages to get back into it, find the voices etc.

green I really recommend cracking on versus endless editing.

If you must edit, I'd advise a once over of the day before's work and that's it.

Now I know Zadie Smith reworks the opening many many times until she feels she has found the tone. But she's a genius!

Green, I know what you mean. I just want to go backwards all the time. Have decided to allow myself to do it after each month (each section is currently called after a month of the year) though this may be too much. I love that Zadie Smith gets the tone right - does it all flow her after that? Or is it still a struggle?

I'd like to finish 'May' by a week on Friday (consults calendar - 26/06/15) - at the moment I can't think beyond that, but will set a new goal after that date.

Green - I can read for you when you're complete if you like? I've done copywriting so I know all about cutting out surplus words and stuff, though you might not agree with my edits, and that's fine. I'm just keen to read other writer's work, see what they're doing?

What kind of novels are you all writing? Mine is a coming-of-age/family saga thing, with three very different siblings.

God, just noticed my dreadful typo in the same post where I came out as a copywriter. Crap!

Just done 1000 words this evening, which is quite good for me. Feeling more positive today about the whole thing!
Thanks for your wise words word; I have recently finished a very short creative writing course, and one of the things that was recommended was cracking on with the first "ugly" draft and getting it all down on paper, (rather than endlessly going back and polishing the first couple of chapters), so this is my aim at the moment.

Travelling - I started off trying to write something along the lines of "domestic noir", but it seems to be turning itself into a university/campus novel!

Sounds like everyone's progressing, yay. I have another longer session in for tomorrow. My goal is to put the time in, I'm less worried about word counts. It's the discipline I need, so hopefully I'll post back tomorrow having done a couple of hours.

Pastaeater it's interesting isn't it, how they become organic structures and take on a life of their own?

I'm not working today, but need to clean the kitchen, take out the recycling, make meals for the freezer. Will try to write 1000 words first though...although the messy kitchen is really getting me down

Can I join in here? I've joined the self publishing thread but no one seems to be around. I'm in the finishing stages of my novel, I'm at 90,000 words but have a couple of thousand more, so am very nearly complete, but then I need to go through and edit, edit some more and edit again. I've never really done this and I'm not sure how to, so any tips welcome! It's very strange editing your own work, as it becomes over familiar. Mine's at the stage where I know it almost too well.

I'm also shit scared of anyone reading it and telling me it's actually awful! It's a YA book so I'm going to ask dd to read it (without telling her it's written by me) but I feel so nervous about it.

In the end, though, I've nearly achieved something - writing a book - so it can't all be a waste.

I'm not sure then (if people give me decent feedback) whether just to go down the self-pub route or go through the whole writing to agents thing. And the marketing of it all - sounds exhausting. I write in fits and starts, I've a chronic illness which I'm often housebound with so sometimes write laid up in bed and sometimes have weeks where I just can't, so I am happy I've done this, however awful it is. I do need to crack on with the next book in the series - why did I have such big plans for this story??!!

TheWordFactory, your job sounds awesome, that's always been my dream (before I was signed off work sick) - the good thing for me is that I can still write around my illness and not let it stop me altogether. Did you get a deal for your first book or was it through self publishing? I know what you mean about going over scenes in your head. I often do that late at night, trying to sleep - find myself rehearsing the next few scenes, placing them and going over emotions and language so they're ready to write down the next day. I'm a bit slapdash at anything resembling planning, though. I had a plot idea and wrote down the very bare bones then just got on with the writing, as that's what I love doing. It may come back to bite me, though, when I discover all the huge plot holes in my edit. :)

Hope everyone's getting on well today.

mad all my novels have been traditionally published.

Though sometimes with the shit rate of profit per book, especially on ebooks, I seriously consider self publishing!

As for editing, I'll tell you how I tackle it for what it's worth.

I read the whole thing from start to finish to check it works as a whole (this is tricky though, or I find it so).

I then read it in character sections. So I read onlt the parts of the story written in one character's POV to check for consistent voice. I then read the next. Then the next etc.

If there is time, before it's due to be subbed, I'll get my Beta reader or my agent to read it. But often I'm up to the wire on timings and that's not possible.

TBF, my subs don't need to be pristine. And I like to leave them quite loose, in case much editing is needed on plot. It's much easier to unpick something that's not sewn up tight.

But a new author won't get away with that. Sadly.

Mad - I completely understand what you mean about your own work becoming too familiar. When I read through my first couple of chapters, (which I've done far too often), I find it really hard to "see" them properly, iykwim. Not quite sure what to do about this!

I'm thinking I'll worry about editing when i get there.

I did write today, not as much as I should have. Good to develop a regular habit though.

pasta I think we become far too close to our work to see it properly.

Whilst I know I'm good to check voice, structure etc, I find it very hard to see if the thing works as a whole.

The best thing for this is a trusted Beta reader. I have a very close friend who loves reading my stuff for me and has, over the years, been incredibly insightful.

I also have my agent, but I actually don't find his comments as helpful .

There are writing communities where you can find a BR. Both real life and on line. But obvioulsy you need the right person ie someone who gets what you're trying to do and will give you observations on the important things (not someone who will get tied up in the minutae of SPAG, or tiny plot elements that they don't like). It can take time to find that person.