Last Friday, I did the impossible. I finished the first draft of my current project early. Don’t worry no one is more surprised by this than me. It was a great feeling, it all finally coming to that dramatic conclusion I had been dreaming about for three months. I have not looked at it since taking a picture of my total word count to share with all of my friends and family. I may not go back to it until February 22. IT IS KILLING ME!
My husband cooked me a celebratory meal, steak and green beans. It was delicious. He followed Alton Brown’s instructions from his show Good Eats Reloaded.
To distract myself, I have been reading books on editing. We stopped in the local bookstore on Saturday and looked over the books because my search online left me overwhelmed. I picked up a copy of The Editor’s Companion. It is a book written by an editor for editors. It explains the different elements to look for, not the most exciting read, but it gave me a place to start. I’ve also started one from Kindle Unlimited called Fix your Damn Book! How to Painlessly Self-Edit Your Novels & Stories. It is amusing and offers many of the same tips. I also ordered Self-Editing for Fiction Writers. Reading it this weekend.
I’ve been a little lost this last week. We had gotten into such a great groove of writing in the evenings; I miss it. I started an outline for a new novel. It will be another YA Supernatural, but a little darker. I did a lot of research last night on different supernatural monsters. I had a lot of fun, and my research didn’t narrow down my focus at all. It was super helpful.
I’m using the Save the Cat Beat Sheet for this novel. (Can you tell that I’m a little obsessed with reading about this whole writing as a craft thing?) I was just looked it over again, fixing typos and filling in a hole or too. Right now my novel is like a dream you know you had, but you can’t remember the details. It’s all fuzzy, and you can make out bits and pieces. I just need a few more days to flush out the ideas. I want to write again this weekend.
I’m excited to start the deep edits in the coming weeks. I hope that I can manage that while I write another one. My goal for this next novel is to have it done by the end of April. You can laugh at me now if you want to.
Deidre Bjorson 