I haven’t had much to say about my novel as of late so I thought today would be your lucky day to know how hard this is! I am just a few chapters away from finishing my first draft. You may think this means I see the light at the end of the tunnel. False.
Editing is just as much work if not more work than writing the dang thing. I’m struggling with removing two characters from my story and trying to smooth out a time-hop in around chapter sixteen. I have multiple beta readers who give great feedback but sometimes that can be confusing and frustrating too. Right now, I’m thinking of deleting the entire first chapter. It’s where my hook is. Do you know how hard it is to write a hook so readers will be absorbed within the first 100 words or less? I’ve already rewritten it about thirty times (over-exaggerated, but really about nine times) and now I want to take all that hard work and toss it? Am I crazy?
No! I’m not. I want a good book that readers will fall into. The pace has to match the tension. The plot has to be appealing. The characters have to be real and readers have to connect with them. I write through my heart, my brain, my groin, the tears, and frustration.
Get this story on paper. My goal right now is to finish draft one by the end of August, preferably my mid-August but I have three vacations this month like some rich person who doesn’t have three kids.
Once draft one is complete, I’ll drink a glass of wine the size of my bathtub.
Melisa Peterson Lewis 
Testify! I am soooo close to finishing the first draft of the sequel to my first novel, and I’m dying just to have it done. I’m also looking at having it finished within a week or two.
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That’s amazing! I’m so envious. I look forward to reading His Name is Zack, it’s in my query. I alternate between indie authors and big traditional sellers. Reading an indie author fantasy right now of an author I’ve met online. I’ll critique it when I’m done if it’s over 3 stars.
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Thank you! And I hope you enjoy the read when you get to it 🙂
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Keep at it. You got this.
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Thank you! So much time goes into it. I can’t imagine stopping now, though I’ve thought about it every once in a while.
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I feel that way too sometimes. But I have a friend who says to me the same thing. It is interesting just how motivated I become when she tells me, “Hey, you got this.”
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Sometimes out inner cheerleader needs a blast from the outside
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I’ve been working on mine for over a year. Life gets in the way. I stall by writing the starts to other stories, six in all. I even considered picking up one of those before finishing this draft…NO! I made progress last weekend. It’s a tough moment and I hate beating up my lead character anymore. Hasn’t he suffered enough?! Anyway, after the draft comes the fun part, tearing it apart and rebuilding it. 😀 Maybe with courage, I can finish the first run by the end of the month. We write for ourselves first, with the hopes of making a connection with the souls of the reader. What a wonderful miracle that would be!
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Truth! I feel like I keep setting goals for completion only to get distracted. Then I set new goals and life happens again distracting me from my goal. It’s a cycle I need to break but if I out too much pressure on myself it becomes less pleasurable. I’m trying to find the balance between enjoyable progress and feelings of total frustration.
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