Book almost finished
No, this is not a part of NaNoWrMo... which I think is a bit silly to be honest. No offense to anyone doing it, I think it's wonderful that it inspires people to buckle down and write, but I find it a little unhelpful. A month is not long enough to write, edit, rewrite and reedit an entire novel. A full on novel takes time to craft. Perhaps it can be done if you are Thoreau and go off alone for a full month to do nothing but write...sure. But in today's world I HIGHLY doubt anyone has the luxury of doing so. I honestly think if you really and trully want to write then you have to fully commit yourself to it. One month is not long enough. Not if you are serious about it and want to get published. I'm not saying this to offend or hurt, but rather to get those of you who are participating to think about things if they really want to do something with their pieces. If you are just writing to write, they nevermind. Have fun. But if you are writing and expect to be published without having studied your market or knowing anything about the business end of things, then you need to consider what you need to do after you have wrote out your manuscripts. First off, as I said, a month is really not enough time to produce a polished manuscript that is ready for publication. Outlining your story progress and then actually writing it down takes alot of time, and yes, you can probably do that in one month if you REALLY buckle down. But then what? More than likely the manuscript is in no shape to be sent out. You need to edit. Alot. You need others to read and offer advice. You have to go over it with a fine toothed comb, fix gramatical errors, cut out weedy words, sharpen content, etc. Then you need to relook at the edits you made. Make people look over it AGAIN and reedit. It can be a very tedious job. Then you have to look at things from the business angle. Who are you marketing your book to? What other novels out there are similar to yours? You have to read books in your genre to see what is out there in the market NOW. You have to look at which publishers are publishing what. Then you need to compile a list of publishers that work with material similar in nature to your own and find out what their submission guidelines are. More then likely you'll have to prepare a query letter in which you'll have to sell your manuscript. This may be the only oppertunity you have to get the publishers attention. What are you going to say to make them want your piece? Many places won't even accept this. Nowadays it is becoming harder and harder to find reputable publishers who will accept unsolicted manuscripts, which means you'll need a literary agent. Then you have to sell your piece and you to the agent. If you are lucky enough to get published, then you may have to wait over two years to even get printed. Thus as you can see, it is a VERY long and tedious process. One month does not do it if you are serious about doing something with your book. Those of you that are participating need to decide if you are writing for fun or are you commited to this? NaNoWrMo is a great starting point. You should be proud on buckling down and getting it all down. That's a HUGE accomplishment and I comend each and everyone of you for commiting to it. Good for you! But if you want to go further, then you need to take what you've done this month and keep the steam going. Don't stop now. Keep moving ahead. I hope this is not discouraging, as my intention is to ENCOURAGE each and every one of you to keep pursuing your dreams. If you want to write, then do it! But if you want to do something with your writing, then you are going to do more. With that said, those of you that do plan to use the writing you've accomplished as a steeping stone, I hope you continue to polish your work and research your market so that we can see your work in bookstores. If this is something you really want to do, then commit to it. You can do it!
Okay...I totally went off on a tagent there.
I only meant to post about my own writing and ending up writing an entire lecture...prehaps because I'm in the midst of exactly what I was speaking about.
The children's novel I am working on, I began about 4 years ago. I ended up losing an entire due to a saving error and was so disheartened by losing all that hard work, that I set it aside and did not pick it up until a year ago. I enrolled in the advanced class at the Children's Literature Institute, and began the process I spoke about above. I have mostly finished my novel now, at 37,934 words and 148 pages. But I'm still not done. The 2nd half of my manuscript is being submitted to my instructor. When I get her feedback, I will need to reedit the second half, then resubmit the entire manuscript for another review and finally do my final reedit (for now). After that is done, I send off query letters to various publishers and agents in the hopes that I get a bite. If I manage to do that, I may very likely have to go back to editing depending on the editor. In any case, this is a big accomplishment for me and I am proud of it.
Hopefully, I will get a publiser to be interested in what I have. We shall see. Until then, I will keep writing.
Okay...I totally went off on a tagent there.
I only meant to post about my own writing and ending up writing an entire lecture...prehaps because I'm in the midst of exactly what I was speaking about.
The children's novel I am working on, I began about 4 years ago. I ended up losing an entire due to a saving error and was so disheartened by losing all that hard work, that I set it aside and did not pick it up until a year ago. I enrolled in the advanced class at the Children's Literature Institute, and began the process I spoke about above. I have mostly finished my novel now, at 37,934 words and 148 pages. But I'm still not done. The 2nd half of my manuscript is being submitted to my instructor. When I get her feedback, I will need to reedit the second half, then resubmit the entire manuscript for another review and finally do my final reedit (for now). After that is done, I send off query letters to various publishers and agents in the hopes that I get a bite. If I manage to do that, I may very likely have to go back to editing depending on the editor. In any case, this is a big accomplishment for me and I am proud of it.
Hopefully, I will get a publiser to be interested in what I have. We shall see. Until then, I will keep writing.