Revisions are done (for now)

I began revisions on the first draft of Project Seashore in April or May. Around mid-July, I made the decision to try to finish by the end of the month. Somehow, I managed to accomplish that! I've never revised any of my manuscripts before, so this was new to me. Read on for details on my process, mindset, takeaways, and next steps for this novel.

Step one: reread

I've never revised my creative writing. Not in any meaningful way, anyway. In the past I'd finish a manuscript, print it out, and stick it in a binder, never to be seen again. But with my latest, I'm excited to revise. There are sections I want to tighten up, foreshadowing to enhance, and extraneous scenes to cut. But, I have no idea what I'm doing, and I'm a little nervous. What if I take the manuscript out and absolute hate it? What if I find the whole thing boring? What if the necessary revisions are too daunting?

Following generally accepted writing advice, I put the manuscript aside for three months and began rereading it in March. And I can say, with relief and amazement, I've actually had a good time.

Well, I did it

NaNoWriMo ended early for me...not because I gave up, but because I finished my novel on November 26, four days ahead of schedule.

This challenge was surprisingly easy for me. Once I decided to write at least 1000 words a day, I just committed. Most days I wrote closer to 1200, which was good because it meant I hit my 30k word goal by the 21st and then had time to reach my stretch goal and finish the draft.

NaNo check-in

It's day 19 of NaNoWriMo and I am having some feelings.

Originally, I wasn't going to write a post on NaNo until the month was over, but I'm at a point where I feel like a check-in is due, so here we are! A little-more-than-halfway check-in!

No books, just words

Despite having a long list of books available at the library right now, I am holding off borrowing any this month. Instead, I am focusing on writing.

In the last few months I've reached 50,000 words in my current manuscript. I'm aiming for a total around 70,000. That goal has always been sort of abstract, fully missing the T in SMART. I've been taking my time and writing a few times a week, enjoying the process without worrying too much about the destination.

It's been a long time since I've made this much progress on a novel!

I'm not sure what happened, but in the last week of October I started thinking about NaNoWriMo and how it might be a good opportunity to set a goal to finish this draft by November 30.

TL;DR: I'm writing again

Buckle up, folks. This one is long and rambling, but in order to get to the point (hey! I'm writing again!), I had to provide some context as to why this is a big deal. Light on the pictures, heavy on the self-reflection. Here we go.