Reset and Re-assess
Man, have I been on a hell tear. Last blog I mentioned that I had started another novel, Labyrinth. I have re-named it Of Scarlet and Sable and here’s the surprise… I finished it this morning! It sits at 97,000 words and as I go back and edit, that number will most likely go up as I fluff the thing a little. I was at 17,000 words at the time of that blog and here we are just over two months later, and that mother is done. All the while I have been writing on the other projects as well, so I have conservatively written around 100,000 words in that time. That’s crazy production for a guy who has a day job.
So, here I sit with five complete novels… well, four since I want to go back and beef up Death’s Construction. It’s done, but I think it needs a little something else. I can expand on some things I didn’t spend enough time on. The point is, I gotta get this crap out so the peeps can read it. I went back to my giant clipboard of goals I set for myself this year and here’s where I stand on a few of them seven and a half months in. Complete three books this year: Check! Write a short story: Check! Get an agent by the end of the year: NO Check, yet!
The reason there is no agent, is I haven’t tried hard enough. I always feel that the time it takes to query agents is time away from my writing. Chicken before the egg, half dozen one way… excuses, plain and simple. I therefore am going to reset my time allocations for the rest of the year. It’s all about getting my stuff in agent’s hands. I will probably go straight to publishers as well. It can be done. These days you don’t necessarily need an agent, so I’m going to explore all my options. I will still write while on lunch at work because I have gotten into a nice rhythm with that. On the days when I have normally been coming home and finishing whatever thought or chapter I was working on at lunch, I will now put at least two days a week towards the querying process. The rest of the year will also be devoted to going back and doing the final edits on the last two books. When I say going back, I am not re-writing. I don’t do that. What came out of my brain is what hit the page and that’s that. What I’m talking about is reading from the beginning and correcting any spelling and grammar issues, and there are plenty of those, writing a lot of words fast tends to produce them, but I have Pro Writing Aid to help with that stuff. At the same time, I’m fixing any continuity issues as well. The whole process is mind numbing, but it has to be done. I don’t want to submit something that isn’t pretty clean.
So, there you go. Total brain reset. I hope it works out. I have proven I can write novels, now I just got to get them in your hands. Until next time, keep on doin’ what you love.