I recently finished writing the second draft of a novel. It is the third in my series so far. It deals with my favorite character, my elftacular Zel. The problem I had with finishing this book and handing it off to someone to read through was that I thought that I had built Zel up so much that I would never be able to do him justice in his own book. Turns out that I was wrong. I nailed Zel perfectly. The person who read this book really knows her stuff, and by extension, she knows my stuff. She knows the characters and said that it felt as though she was in my head while she read it. She answered the questions I had about the book - too many new characters, characters that disappear in the middle, too little action. She also was able to hit on a character that I killed off in this draft but was alive in the first.
This leads me to a new goal that I have for myself. Having faith in what I write.
I have a problem with perfection, I have mentioned that before. But I almost always think that whatever I write is not that good. I don't know why that is. I know that I can write. Other people - professional writers, professors, writing group members - say that I can write. But why is it that I have little faith in my abilities?
For the upcoming year, I plan on doing a couple of things:
1 - rework Zel's book, fixing the little grammar and tense errors that were found. Flush out characters that seem to disappear in the middle of the book. Really, not all that hard to do.
2- start a new book. The NaNoWriMo group in Grand Junction is going to attempt a new writing project. The write a complete novel in 9 months, sort of a lead in for NaNo. But, do I continue with the series I know in and out, or do I start a new idea? I have been thinking about writing a steampunk novel.
Those are my writing goals for the new year - so far.
I vote for steampunk! Maybe start with some short stories on a theme until an idea takes off. Also you should just write, write, write and let the world take it as it is. Strive for perfection but never forget to distance yourself from it so that you can analyze what you have objectively. No shame, no nervous anticipation - just read it, let it be, fix what needs fixing and then let it go and begin anew. You can do it, Aimee! I want to buy one of you Elftacular books one of these days! <3 You have good plans for the upcoming year and I know that you will be successful.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of you working on steampunk. But I also liked the idea you talked about, I think it was on facebook, about a crime novel. It might be good to play in an area that you're not used too for a little bit to maybe give you some new ideas for Zel.
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