Okay, remember how I have been feeling so good that I am working on RANSOM everyday. Well, I looked over the notes of how far I get each day. In 14 days I have only gotten to page 61.
Ugh......
In my brain, I know it's progress (61 pages I didn't have re-worked 14 days ago, yadda, yadda, yadda). But it's also screaming...61 PAGES..IS THAT ALL YOU CAN GIVE ME, DIRTBAG? (It's kinda in a hardass, drill sergeant voice.)
Granted, there has been a lot of new stuff added (I'm up to 65.5 k words) and a lot of stuff taken out. So...lots of work. But here's the thing. The beginning is the part that has had the most work already. And now it's taken 14 days just to read 61 pages into it. How long's it gonna take to work through the rest that hasn't had near as much work?
I shudder to think.
Can you tell I could use some "PRAISE ME"?
61 pages is a lot. Don't forget, rewriting is as much work as writing in the first place, so basically you have done the same amount of work as the original writing of 61 pages. That is huge!
ReplyDeleteOne thing to remember, too, is that you learned as you wrote the first time around, so you can hope that there is less "mechanical" stuff to fix toward the end. Of course, the things you changed at the beginning in the storyline will have an effect on the end, but don't be afraid of the work. No one likes a book with a weak ending--work just as hard on the end as the beginning, and your readers will thank you for it.
I think there is this fear that the beginning is the make-or-break section because of the marketing-to-agents/slush-reader aspect of it, so maybe that is why you have already put so much work into it, not because it really needed that much work. Does that make sense?
Sometimes when I am washing dishes and thinking of nothing in particular, I will realize I am thinking about Ransom. That, if nothing else, should tell you that you have something special, and you shouldn't give up on it. I know it will sell and have lots of fans.
*hugs*
I am not so eloquent as Nee, but I can tell you that my entire thesis, including lit cited, figures and graphs of *all* of my data, is only 65 pages. I only actually wrote about 35 pages worth of stuff about a research project that took me four years to complete.
ReplyDeleteSounds to me like you are doing something right... so I'll just sit back here and say "Yeah, ditto what she said!"
PS - If it makes you feel any better, I am already dying to read Ransom. ;)
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