And now back to The Next Big Thing...
Whoops, sorta got swept away in various blog hops & parties and the business of my non-e life and haven't answered a Next Big Thing question in a while. But I'm back at it and will continue to answer at least one a week until I've finally stuck a fork in this thing. As a refresher, I'm answering these questions in relation to my upcoming novel, Divine Temptation, scheduled for release in early 2013.
7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
6 months. This story had been playing in my head for years, since well before Three Daves was ever published, but as you can gather from the opening paragraph of this post, I'm easily distracted, and so it took me a year and a half to recover from my squirreliness with the first novel and get serious about writing the second one.
When I decided it was time, I wrote a rough outline of the sequence of events and set a goal of writing out one chapter every weekend. The deal I made with myself was to just pound it out and move on to the next chapter the following weekend, no looking back (other than to check for consistency). I couldn't allow myself to start editing at this stage or I'd have never gotten the whole thing written.
Aha, but my secret weapon during this time was my trusted and talented friend who read each rough chapter as I wrote it and offered critiques and suggestions, which I filed away for the second draft. After letting the first draft cool for a few months, I was able to move through the second and third drafts fairly quickly---and I was relieved to discover that the story was a place in which I easily and happily re-immersed.
How closely does this resemble your writing process?
7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
6 months. This story had been playing in my head for years, since well before Three Daves was ever published, but as you can gather from the opening paragraph of this post, I'm easily distracted, and so it took me a year and a half to recover from my squirreliness with the first novel and get serious about writing the second one.
When I decided it was time, I wrote a rough outline of the sequence of events and set a goal of writing out one chapter every weekend. The deal I made with myself was to just pound it out and move on to the next chapter the following weekend, no looking back (other than to check for consistency). I couldn't allow myself to start editing at this stage or I'd have never gotten the whole thing written.
Aha, but my secret weapon during this time was my trusted and talented friend who read each rough chapter as I wrote it and offered critiques and suggestions, which I filed away for the second draft. After letting the first draft cool for a few months, I was able to move through the second and third drafts fairly quickly---and I was relieved to discover that the story was a place in which I easily and happily re-immersed.
How closely does this resemble your writing process?
Comments
Love your blog, Nicki. :D
I also write poetry and short stories, and those have a shorter writing process time, but it still mirrors the one for writing a novel. Write in one day, rest for 2-3, and then revise.
Love,
Janie
She likes doing it this way but I realize there are other methods as well.
Congratulations in advance on your impending Divine Temptation.