The Journey Here: Awkward Puberty for Manuscripts
Continuing on the saga of how I wound up with a blog titled "my agent told me to make a blog," I've talked so far about opening my eyes to the world of writing, getting my feet wet with critique, and developing a writing "family." Then there's the actual writing part.
So far, I only have one brave manuscript that's made the whole journey. There's another one or two in the incubator, but Mr. Debut Novel was the one that went through all the growing pains. I think I've been working on this book for... four years? Or something like that. I know it's not as dramatic sounding as the stories people have been fussing over for twenty years, but it feels like ages to me, okay! I know for a fact that future novels will not take as long, because poor Debut Novel was the one that tripped over every pothole and landed in the ditch at every sharp turn. Thanks to all its bruises, I'm now a little more in control of the wheel.
I mentioned before that one day I looked at my writing--the same writing I'd been working on the previous day--and it struck me, "Wow, this is completely unsalvageable." I didn't mention what happened after that: I cannibalized that almost-first-book (made it maybe 4-5 chapters?), and put it into the stirring pot to turn into what I have now.
Essentially, that almost-first-book was about a war between two planets with very different cultures, and the MC is a soldier who defects to help the other side, because he's in love with a citizen of that planet and prefers the culture and reasons. The MC ends up framed for betraying everybody, as if he were a spy rather than a defector. I took a very similar romantic relationship, but I realized that part of my naive writing involved my characters being innocent of all wrongdoing. So I thought... what if he actually did betray everyone? Boom. Debut Novel sparked to life.
The other influences aren't so glorious, with character inspirations from Farscape and Torchwood of all places. (Don't try to look for them--they're unrecognizable now). And honestly, my very first attempt at my very first chapter was disastrously bad. I had a really naive, too-busy fight scene, I had an extra sister character who got killed for no reason, and the MC was annoying and dumb. I did manage to fix this, somehow, by basically deleting that file and rewriting it from scratch on a new laptop.
Then I found my way to Critique Circle and got fresh eyes on my chapter for the first time. Like I mentioned in the last two posts, I had a lot of help, trained my editing brain, and got some major structural suggestions that propped up my sagging plot. I actually had momentum, for a change. I did find that I reached a point where I wanted to go back and edit all the chapters that had been critiqued, and submitting was slowing me down. So I spent a number of months getting to a point where I could write somewhat competently, then went into hiding for a year while I finished the first draft.
Getting through that draft was major work. It was during my final year of vet school, full of clinical rotations, and sometimes I wouldn't write for six to eight weeks. Then I'd get a week off and plow through it. I finally hit pivotal scenes I'd been imagining for ages. I also hit roadblocks that I hadn't considered, and didn't know how to get through. I left gaps, and didn't technically finish until a second draft, where I filled in a handful of scenes and chapters that were left unwritten. But one day, not too long before finals, I finished it. It was messy, but it was a full 115k words of a novel from start to finish.
Then came editing.
So far, I only have one brave manuscript that's made the whole journey. There's another one or two in the incubator, but Mr. Debut Novel was the one that went through all the growing pains. I think I've been working on this book for... four years? Or something like that. I know it's not as dramatic sounding as the stories people have been fussing over for twenty years, but it feels like ages to me, okay! I know for a fact that future novels will not take as long, because poor Debut Novel was the one that tripped over every pothole and landed in the ditch at every sharp turn. Thanks to all its bruises, I'm now a little more in control of the wheel.
I mentioned before that one day I looked at my writing--the same writing I'd been working on the previous day--and it struck me, "Wow, this is completely unsalvageable." I didn't mention what happened after that: I cannibalized that almost-first-book (made it maybe 4-5 chapters?), and put it into the stirring pot to turn into what I have now.
Essentially, that almost-first-book was about a war between two planets with very different cultures, and the MC is a soldier who defects to help the other side, because he's in love with a citizen of that planet and prefers the culture and reasons. The MC ends up framed for betraying everybody, as if he were a spy rather than a defector. I took a very similar romantic relationship, but I realized that part of my naive writing involved my characters being innocent of all wrongdoing. So I thought... what if he actually did betray everyone? Boom. Debut Novel sparked to life.
The other influences aren't so glorious, with character inspirations from Farscape and Torchwood of all places. (Don't try to look for them--they're unrecognizable now). And honestly, my very first attempt at my very first chapter was disastrously bad. I had a really naive, too-busy fight scene, I had an extra sister character who got killed for no reason, and the MC was annoying and dumb. I did manage to fix this, somehow, by basically deleting that file and rewriting it from scratch on a new laptop.
Then I found my way to Critique Circle and got fresh eyes on my chapter for the first time. Like I mentioned in the last two posts, I had a lot of help, trained my editing brain, and got some major structural suggestions that propped up my sagging plot. I actually had momentum, for a change. I did find that I reached a point where I wanted to go back and edit all the chapters that had been critiqued, and submitting was slowing me down. So I spent a number of months getting to a point where I could write somewhat competently, then went into hiding for a year while I finished the first draft.
Getting through that draft was major work. It was during my final year of vet school, full of clinical rotations, and sometimes I wouldn't write for six to eight weeks. Then I'd get a week off and plow through it. I finally hit pivotal scenes I'd been imagining for ages. I also hit roadblocks that I hadn't considered, and didn't know how to get through. I left gaps, and didn't technically finish until a second draft, where I filled in a handful of scenes and chapters that were left unwritten. But one day, not too long before finals, I finished it. It was messy, but it was a full 115k words of a novel from start to finish.
Then came editing.
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