Last night I finished the first edit of my new novel, Any Day But.
I sat back in my seat after I typed that last word, staring at the computer screen, and let myself indulge in a moment of satisfaction at my accomplishment.
Then I shot off an email to my writing group: "I think my WIP is ready for you all to look at."
Well, that was premature.
I woke up this morning still thinking about my WIP, and I was suddenly seized with doubts. I remembered two or three threads that I hadn't wrapped up. And I also realized I still wasn't quite sure that all of my scenes were realistic. This story has a lot of medical emergency situations involved. Thankfully I have a resident doctor (my father-in-law) who doesn't mind answering my weird questions ... "So, if my anorexic main character has been running away from a crazed gunman all day, how would the paramedics treat her if she...." You get the idea.
Anyway, I realized that I might not be ready for my writing group to look at this thing yet.
That's the problem with writing: you always think you're done when you're far from being done.
I'm going to let my WIP rest for a few days. I'll verify the medical details I need to verify with my doctor-in-residence. And then sometime next week I'll read through it again, and keep hacking away.
What can I say? It's just a long process. *Maybe* in a few months it will be ready for my writing group. We'll see.
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Amy, I know exactly how you feel. I'm curious--how long did you let this WiP sit between the last thing you did (finishing the manuscript or another edit?) and this current edit?
ReplyDeleteAs for waiting, I wish you lots of strength and patience as you clear up the missing pieces and make this manuscript whole.
I look forward to hearing what your crit group has to say, whether that is in the near future or not. :)
Hope you're having a great week!
This post makes me think of a blog I came across recently called Character Therapist or something like that. It's such a fun idea. A woman with her degree helps writers to know more about how our characters would behave. I follow her but I'm forgetting her name. Might be fun for you to check out. :D
ReplyDelete~ Wendy
Weronika, To answer your question, I finished the first draft before we left China. Maybe a month before we left? I forget. I started working on this edit as soon as all my computer issues were figured out, so it was probably two or three months in between. It was probably a blessing in disguise to leave it that long, because I could look at it with a fresh perspective.
ReplyDeleteWendy, Yes! I know who you're talking about. I actually follow her blog too (Archetype Writing Blog, right?), and I asked her for help with the inner workings of my anorexic character when I was just starting the first draft of this book. Very helpful! I originally thought my character had a major psychological disorder, but the Archetype psychologist helped me to make a proper diagnosis. Really cool.