So You've "Finished" Your Novel.... The Writing Part, At Least

What's next?

There are as many philosophies about what to do when you've finished your first draft as there are writers (probably even more, as I'm sure some people could claim more than one). Here's what I've done so far, and how it's worked out for me.

When I finished the first draft of my first novel, I celebrated - I think I had a nice dinner or something. I'd never written a novel before, and it was a great feeling. It had taken me more than six months, writing fifteen minutes at a time. After the dust settled from all of the celebrating, and I let it sit for a while, I went back and read through parts - and realized that I really didn't like it very much. Life intervened.

When I finished the first draft of my second novel, I was thrilled. I'd written it during Nanowrimo (meaning that I wrote 50,000 words in one month) which I considered quite an achievement. Right away I printed off a hard copy, which I hadn't done with the first novel. That made it feel more real, and I even committed to reading the whole thing through from start to finish. It wasn't a bad story. In the meantime, I started writing the sequel to the novel. And at some point realized that the real story started halfway through my first novel, and needed to be changed radically, and so I gave that one a break as well.

The third complete novel took me a little over a month. The idea for it appeared out of nowhere, and I didn't spend a lot of time plotting how it would look. Instead, I just jumped right in and wrote the whole thing. I was glad when I finally put "END" on the bottom of the manuscript, and again I printed it out to have the physical thing in my hand, to make it a reality that I'd actually produced something that was, if not publishable, at least an admirably thick stack of paper. This time, however, I went a step further, and started giving out copies to friends and families. I'm feeling pretty good about this one, and now that I've got people reading the story, it means I have to take it as far as it will go!

So far, the best comment has been this: "You could totally get this published. There are books out there that are way worse than this. Wait, no, that sounds bad! I mean your's is better than some I've read, that have been published!"

In summary: finish your first draft. Print it off so you have something to show for it. Get people to read it. And then read it yourself!

First Draft Third Novel Finished!

Yay! I just finished the first draft of my third novel! It was starting to look a bit dicey there for a few days, but I finally buckled down and did it.

Here are some stats:

Genre: YA Adventure/Fantasy
Final Word Count: 51655
Final Page Count (double-spaced, 12 point Times New Roman): 155
Days From Conception to Completion: 37

I was hoping to get it in under the 30 day mark, NaNoWriMo style like I did with my last one, but I didn't quite make it. Glad I stuck with it, though.

For those of you out there who have finished a first draft of a novel, you know that this is only just the beginning. Next comes the read-through, rewriting, sending it out to anyone and everyone who is willing to read through a rough draft, more rewriting, and hopefully some workshopping. Although that shouldn't scare off any fledgling writers! You can do it if you just go one step at a time.

This is novel number 3.5 for me - I did start on a sequel to one of my earlier novels, but stopped when I realized that I needed to get rid of 50% of the first novel. I got all the way to the read through for the second one before deciding that I just wasn't happy with it and moving on. I remember being upset when people said "hardly anyone publishes the first novel they ever write" back before I wrote my first one, but I think now I understand. Each novel is better than the last, and this one might actually be good enough for me to start looking for agents. We'll see how I feel after reading through it and getting some feedback.

On A Serious Note: Door-to-Door Sales Scams

I enjoy writing humor, but when I get pissed off, I can get pretty serious. Earlier this year a young woman came to my door, implying that she was "meeting people in the area." It turned out that she was actually selling magazines, and I was thisclose to falling for her sales spiel before finding out that she was actually part of a door-to-door sales scam. Now I'm spreading the word, so that you can keep your hard-earned money from falling into their hands.

Before anyone gets upset, I know that not everyone who sells door-to-door is participating in a scam. I still think that a lot of the high-pressure sales techniques often used in this setting are not cool. If I want to buy something, I'll go to the store or online. If you want to give me some information that I can mull over, I guess that's okay. But if you want to tell me you're a poor college kid trying to win scholarship money, you better hope that I don't Google the company name to find all sorts of sketchy information.

If you want to read about my experience, check out Warning: Don't Open the Door to Magazine Sellers for Unlimited Sales, Inc

You can also visit How to Identify a Door-to-Door Sales Scam for information on how to protect yourself.

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Writing Humor for Weird Worm

I've recently been doing some stories for Weird Worm, another online site specializing in humor, interesting facts, and general weirdness.

Below are my recent articles. The sensitive among you should note that although Weird Worm is quite a bit more restrained than, say, Cracked.com, some of the articles might still offend some people.

5 Weird Foods or Drinks to Consume on a Hot Day

5 Examples of Rural Entertainment That Could End in Disaster

Six Annoying Chores That Used To Be Much Worse

7 Movie Mentors Who Failed Miserably

If you're a writer, and interested in writing this kind of stuff, I've heard that Weird Worm might be able to use you. Of course I'll have to see some examples of your work before I can recommend you :)

And here, for your viewing pleasure, is a rundown of some of my (wonderful, obviously) recent humor articles:

Cracked: 5 Movie Romances That Won't Last (According to Science)

Regretful Morning: 5 Reasons Your Gaming System is Better than your Girlfriend

Gunaxin: Seven Types of Animal Lawn Ornaments Explained

Read about my Writing Humor for Gunaxin and my Writing Humor for Cracked.com (and Regretful Morning) for more information.

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Visiting Norway

Taking some time off of writing to visit family in Norway (although I have to admit - I am taking the opportunity to write notes for future stories and articles!). Hopefully I'll get a chance to post some pictures soon - the setting is absolutely breathtaking, and thought pictures don't do it justice they're better than nothing!

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