Five Year Writing Goal
I’m taking part in Misha and Beth’s Five Year Project and my five-year goal is to write a novel and get it published. This is both my monthly and my end-of-the-year recap on how I’m doing.
First step: write the first draft. Tick!
Second step: edit the first draft – in progress.
First draft: The Reluctant Scribe
I started writing on the 27th July and wanted to finish the first draft by the end of October, to clear the way for NaNoWriMo and a new writing project. Deadlines are good for me and, yes, I finished on the 31st October. Yippee. I’ve described why I abandoned my previous novel in this blog post: Why I abandoned my novel and I wrote about my analysis of the problems in another post: Learning from Mistakes. Here is a brief summary of the major changes I made: switching genre from sci-fi to historic fiction, writing the final chapter first, sticking to one POV, and using multiple doc files.
Editing the first draft
I ended up with 57 ‘chapters’ and a total word count of around 88,000 words. I didn’t look at the draft during November but picked it up again on the 1st December. Now I am making slow progress with the editing.
- A writing friend is reading through the chapters and making comments for me to consider.
- I bought Alan Watt’s book, The 90-day Rewrite and am working my way through it.
- I asked my amazing eldest daughter to proofread the first section of the book.
- I have entered the first 300 words into WriteStars Chapter One Competition
- And the first 10,000 words into Richard and Judy’s Search for a Bestseller Competition
So now I have a very well-edited first 300 words and a reasonably well-edited 10,000 words. Only 78,000 more to go!
But I’m pleased to report I’ve got up to chapter 38.
Ruth Livingstone 
Well done Ruth. Keep on editing, I have to do the same. You’re my inspiration. Happy New Year
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Do you have any editing tips? I find this the hardest part!
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Me too Ruth. What I’ve been told, and what I’m going to do, is read as if it’s someone else’s work. I’m brilliant at picking out mistakes and grammar etc in other people’s work, so that’s one tip. Also, I read in Writing magazine, start from the end of a chapter, and read the last paragraph, then the one before that, so as to see it in a different light. Hope these help. Keep us informed. I haven’t looked at my novel since nano. Oh, another tip is to get an editor to read it, such as Lorraine Mace, Debz Hobbs Wyatt, or Sally Quillford. I’d recommend all of them.
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Well done! You’ve made amazing progress this year. Every bit you learn is worth it.
I hope you have a joyous and prosperous 2014. 🙂
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