I’ve turned my attention back to the novel, and I hope to finish the first draft straight through to the end. The title is Beamstar, and I’ll be posting more information about it here.
I’m not too far from the end, anyway. If I banish all short story ideas from my mind (or at least banish them to a notebook for now), I can probably finish the draft of the novel within the next four to six weeks. That’s the goal: just get it done.
(Though I honestly think I prefer writing short stories. You can finish one in a five-day burst of creative energy, you can edit and proofread in a day, you get a sense of accomplishment in a job completed, and you get something tangible that you can immediately try to get published. And if it doesn’t sell, it doesn’t sell.)
The point about not wasting a lot of time but having something done is so true. I’ve never written a short story. I just don’t think I can tell one. I’ve been working on my novel for about a year now (with some big breaks). But if it doesn’t sell, I won’t feel it’s been a waste of time. I’ve had a lot of fun doing it. When I’m not having fun anymore, I’ll stop.
I think it all boils down to where your heart is. If that novel is something that’s going to haunt your dreams until it’s done, then you’d be doing yourself a real injustice shelving it in favor of short pieces written mostly to “amuse yourself”.
If you are only six weeks out from completing a rough drat, I’d say GO FOR IT. Then there will be all the time you want to let it sit for as long as you choose before you tackle the project of revising and editing for possible publication.
You definitely don’t want to be old and gray someday and catch yourself saying, “I could’ve…”
Shari: I think you have the right attitude, that you’re writing because you want to, and you’ll stop when you no longer enjoy it.
Ken: Thank you for the encouraging words. Fatigue with this book has definitely set in for me, but since I’m so far along, I’m definitely going to push through to the end. How long did you spend on your first draft? And how long did you wait before revising and editing?
My novel is complete at 145K words. The first draft was 109K words and it took about 450 hours to write. The revisions took about another 350 hours.
I don’t track my writing by calendar days. Everyday is a little different in the amount of time I spend, so I track the actual time (hours) writing.
I guess it works out to about a year total. I average around 3 hours a day… and there’s always a little downtime.
I agree – there’s something so immediate in the short story, so easy to complete, compared to the novel.
Good luck with Beamstar – I hope the writing flows. Or is writing like acting? Should I be saying “break a ribbon”?