I’ve decided to write a novel in 5 days. Not a first draft, but a completed novel from concept to polish with rewrites included!
Today was all about the second rewrite…
I’m from the camp who believes the cliche that writing is rewriting so it was SUPER important that when scheduling out my week that I made time for multiple rewrites. No matter how well you plan or outline things happen when writing. A character who you thought would do one thing does something completely different and rewrites allow you to embrace those kind of changes.
So my main focus today was to fix all the plot and character problems. I did have a few. The core of my story didn’t change from the original outline but the genre unsuspectingly did. I meant the book to be way more action like Taken or the Jason Bourne movies. There is action, but instead its much more a slower political thriller burn like The Pelican Brief or a Brad Meltzer book.
I had so much to do with the characters and I’m still not done with them. When you start a first draft they are all new and you don’t know them yet. Now that I know the story and have been through it a few times I’ve started to hear their voices. That means I still need to go back again and make sure that those voices are clear and distinct throughout the whole thing.
Lisa is working a late night tonight (Plant emergency but not like she’s in-danger emergency) so I should have till midnight or later to keep working. My plan is to keep doing passes addressing and cleaning up all the character bits. Then tomorrow I’ll do a final line editing pass which for me is always the hardest slowest stage of writing a book.
Four days in and I am feeling burned out. I’m ready to be done. Why couldn’t I call this “The 4 Day novel?” so that I could quit or “The 8 Day Novel” so I could take a break? Uhhhh tomorrow will be painful, but I’m almost done. ONLY ONE MORE DAY!