Friday, April 05, 2013

Writing Ideas & Organization

Every good writer has ideas. The problem arises when there are too many ideas or we lack the ability...commitment... to see the idea through to a full length novel. (Or novella if that's how you fly)

Always before I had a full time day job or I was raising kids and doing car pool every day. I barely had time to think, let alone actually write something that wasn't just a few pages. I have a few books finished but only in first or weak second drafts.

Now I'm unemployed and if I ever wanted to make writing my job now was the time to give it a go. I don't need to make a million dollars but to get a little income rolling would be rewarding.

I have dozens of books outlined. Ideas are easy. Taking them through to perfection...not so much. I know I have a tendency to want to get it done now. I'm from New Jersey. We do everything fast here; talk fast, walk fast, work fast. Not always a good thing. Especially when writing.

I write it start to finish, read through and edit. Then print out and edit line by line. Enter those edits into the computer. Read through start to finish send to editor. Get it back, fix what ever needs fixing and then off it goes to the editor...hopefully for the last time. (Not always the case, but it seems to be working.)

So what's your magic? One draft or two? The process?
How long does it take you to get a book from start to end?

1 comment:

Charles Gramlich said...

Over the years it seems to me that when I'm working on a book I generally produce about 30,000 finished words over a period 3 and a half months. I only do one complete draft, because I edit and edit as I go, and then I go back over that at the end and do final edits

Last Day of NANOWRIMO --- Oh No!

 Where did the month go?  Certainly not on the page. I have an outline, some character sketches but mostly I have a lot of research notes.  ...