You can read my last post HERE where I described what the book is about, how I've been going about writing it, etc.
Now I'm finished. I actually have been for a while. I wrapped up near the end of May (yes, a month off my originally intended goal. But when I realized that I wasn't going to hit that goal, I created another one for the end of May and actually set up a countdown. I made it with three days to spare).
Anyways, now that I am finished, there is so much more to do. Writing the book is only step one to the process. I mentioned in my previous blog post that the way I went about writing it was to basically just push through it, not getting hung up on details and not putting a whole lot of effort into the hard parts. Basically, I just vomited out the first draft. It was absolutely dreadful. But the point was to get my ideas out on paper in the story format. Then once I was finished, I could go back and fix things.
Now that I am finished, I can go back and fix all those things that I glossed over, worded strangely, left blank, and so on.
There's a long road ahead before I reach the final draft. I will have this thing memorized by the time I'm done:
1) A continuity check
2) Grammar check
3) Intense read through, adding in description and phrases, rewording things, adding/taking away paragraphs, and just generally making things more beautiful and flowing
4) Going by section: Intense read through. I reread each section over and over and over making sure it is absolutely PERFECT before moving on to the next one (there's generally about two or three of them in each chapter)
5) Pass off that draft to someone else to read
6) One final read through to look for any last mistakes
Then at last it will be completed!
I should tell you. I started out with around 98,000-99,000 words and 28 chapters (that's the bare minimum for a novel). That is how much I have been reading over and over and over. I am now about half way through step four and I have 124,725 words (I've removed all chapters for now).
It is utterly exhausting… and completely frustrating sometimes. Back when I was still writing it, if I got stuck, I would just pass over it or fill it in with something lame (a lot of the time I would put "something [awesome/angry/thoughtful/stupid/] here"). But now that I am editing it, I cannot do that. Whenever I come to something that's hard, I force myself to sit there and think until I come up with the words. Sometimes I will literally sit there for a half an hour, yelling at my computer screen and groaning at the ceiling because I just CANNOT!
Synonyms are my worst too. I am so grateful for the thesaurus. However, sometimes there are times when the thesaurus does not help. Like, there are phrases I use way too much and then I just can't think of anything else to put in its place. For example… my characters nod a lot. Seriously, what is wrong with me? Can't I be more creative and have them… do something else? But then I can never think of anything else to put in its place. I often try to mix it up a little "he gave a nod" or "he bobbed his head", or perhaps I'll add an adjective "he gave an understanding nod". But argh! Why all the nodding? (I have the same problem with shrugging, raising eyebrows, and smiling. Fortunately there are lots of ways to mix up smiling though).
Sometimes I get upset, I moan and yell at my computer, I complain to others around me, I literally plank on the floor in frustration. I'm sure people wonder if I do actually enjoy writing and am not just after the ultimate reward of having a novel completed. The answer is yes, I do. As annoying as it can be, I do thoroughly enjoy it. I just love being dramatic is all. And I have plans to write at least two more books as soon as I am finished with this one :D
Some examples of my editing from step 3 (the top ones are the first draft and the bottom ones are edited). Some of these have changed even more in step 4:
EX 1:
EX 2:
EX 3:
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