Writing status/rambles: ??? edition
Apr. 6th, 2022 08:57 amIt's been a minute since I did an update for Novel #4. I was hoping to do a final edit pass during my 7 hour round trip flight this past weekend, but instead, I only edited about a quarter of the book with 100 more pages to go. :(
This weekend, I have to do my taxes (gahhh), so I'm not sure how much more progress I'll be able to make, but I'll definitely try to finish. In addition to line edits, I've flagged a few scene-level changes that need to be made, so I have no idea how long this is going to take, really.
BUT. Part of why I made so little progress editing Novel #4 is that...I couldn't stop myself from working on Novel #5.
Whomp whomp.
Novel #5 is my horror story. It once again tackles issues of mental health, so that's probably why I've felt drawn to it. But weirdly, I feel like horror and romance writing...actually have a lot in common, and that's why this feels more "comfortable" for me to write? Both of them are about the slow burn and building up to an emotional climax.
Novel #5 is 9k words right now (eek!). I've been torn on whether or not to actually work on this, or to take a break from writing after I finish editing Novel #4. But now I have an outline (oops) and I've been thinking the first draft wordcount target would be 50k words, so...maybe I will jump into this after I finish editing Novel #4?
Maybe the difference will be that I won't try to rush the first draft for this the way I did for Novel #4. Especially since horror really needs to be about the atmosphere, possibly more than any other genre. I think I'd try drafting it slowly, stopping to rewrite as necessary in order to get the descriptions where I want them to be rather than pushing through and ending up with a crappy draft that I feel bad about.
I also wanted to talk about process for a minute.
It feels weird to tell non-writers that I'm still refining and understanding my own writing process even after 4+ books (more like 8-ish books if I count the novels I wrote in college). But other writers have said that the process can change even from one book to another, and I totally believe that.
I've always been in between outlining and not outlining. That is, I usually do write an outline—because I can't start writing a book unless I have a sense of the beginning, key middle scenes, and the ending—but the outline is extremely vague apart from the beginning/middle/end scenes I already have a clear idea for.
But with this horror story? I actually loved writing a semi-detailed outline.
I still followed my normal process of starting with writing scenes that jump all over the story, order-wise. I think this is a necessary part of my process because it helps me think through my characters and plot through writing and come up with turning-point scenes that make the dreaded middle less disastrous. But I decided to sit down and write an outline when I was about 9k words into the book, and it actually flowed quite easily. I'm sure it will change when I draft the book, but it was really helpful to have a bird's-eye view of the story and force myself to think about pacing at an early stage.
I think outlining worked for this story because it's a slow burn horror and because the unsettling feelings come from layering uncomfortable events in a specific order. For Novel #4, my mystery, I also wrote (or tried to write) an outline, but I got bogged down by the details of the investigation and had a hard time with pacing for that reason. I definitely feel like I do better (at this point in my writing career) with emotion-driven stories that rely on the slow burn and emotional build up.
So...yeah! All of this is to say that Novel #5 feels like it'll be a nice palate-cleanser after Novel #4 and, considering I literally have not been able to stop myself from working on this story, I'm excited to dive in.
Even though this is a new genre for me. Even though—more worryingly—I don't know if this is marketable (I haven't seen a traditionally published horror story with a queer male protagonist before) or whether my agent would shoot this down for causing branding chaos (as I mentioned in my previous entry).
But the traditional publishing process has been a crapshoot lately, and I'm going to work on whatever story makes me happy and keeps me sane.
This weekend, I have to do my taxes (gahhh), so I'm not sure how much more progress I'll be able to make, but I'll definitely try to finish. In addition to line edits, I've flagged a few scene-level changes that need to be made, so I have no idea how long this is going to take, really.
BUT. Part of why I made so little progress editing Novel #4 is that...I couldn't stop myself from working on Novel #5.
Whomp whomp.
Novel #5 is my horror story. It once again tackles issues of mental health, so that's probably why I've felt drawn to it. But weirdly, I feel like horror and romance writing...actually have a lot in common, and that's why this feels more "comfortable" for me to write? Both of them are about the slow burn and building up to an emotional climax.
Novel #5 is 9k words right now (eek!). I've been torn on whether or not to actually work on this, or to take a break from writing after I finish editing Novel #4. But now I have an outline (oops) and I've been thinking the first draft wordcount target would be 50k words, so...maybe I will jump into this after I finish editing Novel #4?
Maybe the difference will be that I won't try to rush the first draft for this the way I did for Novel #4. Especially since horror really needs to be about the atmosphere, possibly more than any other genre. I think I'd try drafting it slowly, stopping to rewrite as necessary in order to get the descriptions where I want them to be rather than pushing through and ending up with a crappy draft that I feel bad about.
I also wanted to talk about process for a minute.
It feels weird to tell non-writers that I'm still refining and understanding my own writing process even after 4+ books (more like 8-ish books if I count the novels I wrote in college). But other writers have said that the process can change even from one book to another, and I totally believe that.
I've always been in between outlining and not outlining. That is, I usually do write an outline—because I can't start writing a book unless I have a sense of the beginning, key middle scenes, and the ending—but the outline is extremely vague apart from the beginning/middle/end scenes I already have a clear idea for.
But with this horror story? I actually loved writing a semi-detailed outline.
I still followed my normal process of starting with writing scenes that jump all over the story, order-wise. I think this is a necessary part of my process because it helps me think through my characters and plot through writing and come up with turning-point scenes that make the dreaded middle less disastrous. But I decided to sit down and write an outline when I was about 9k words into the book, and it actually flowed quite easily. I'm sure it will change when I draft the book, but it was really helpful to have a bird's-eye view of the story and force myself to think about pacing at an early stage.
I think outlining worked for this story because it's a slow burn horror and because the unsettling feelings come from layering uncomfortable events in a specific order. For Novel #4, my mystery, I also wrote (or tried to write) an outline, but I got bogged down by the details of the investigation and had a hard time with pacing for that reason. I definitely feel like I do better (at this point in my writing career) with emotion-driven stories that rely on the slow burn and emotional build up.
So...yeah! All of this is to say that Novel #5 feels like it'll be a nice palate-cleanser after Novel #4 and, considering I literally have not been able to stop myself from working on this story, I'm excited to dive in.
Even though this is a new genre for me. Even though—more worryingly—I don't know if this is marketable (I haven't seen a traditionally published horror story with a queer male protagonist before) or whether my agent would shoot this down for causing branding chaos (as I mentioned in my previous entry).
But the traditional publishing process has been a crapshoot lately, and I'm going to work on whatever story makes me happy and keeps me sane.