Ongoing Education

Learning to be a writer is a lifelong process, much like pretty much every other skill in existence. While my college education was valuable, it’s been a while and also it was expensive. Luckily there are a lot of other resources out there that have helped me continue to grow as a writer. I wanted to take a second and point them out, just in case someone else would find them useful.

When is it Enough?

Writing projects can go on forever. Actually, that’s pretty much any kind of creative endeavor, but writing is more pertinent to me at the moment so that’s what we’re discussing today. You start a project, it’s rough, and then you edit. Then some issue pops up, and you fix that. And then you tweak something else. Then more editing. Then you put it aside in a drawer for a while, then come back and realize you can do so much better so it’s a full round of edits again.

And so on and so forth. But when is enough enough?

Read more: When is it Enough?

The answer is, who knows? Every project is different, and every author is different. There are a few subtle signs that I’ve noticed in one of my more polished books lately that make me think it’s time to send it out into the world.

When your latest editing pass doesn’t include any major issues. No more chapters disappearing entirely, no more reorganizing the third act, no more characters getting combined. And so on and so forth. You’re still tweaking stuff, but the adjustments can be finished with a sentence added or switching a word around. At that point, you’re risking the dreaded flip-flop edits, where you switch something in one draft only to change it straight back in the next.

When someone else looks at it, they don’t have editing notes so much as responses, and they’re the right responses. Having people read your book with the viewpoint of a reader instead of an editor can be invaluable. When the book is almost done, they’ll be asking questions and making responses that will hopefully mostly fit with where you want to lead your reader, or even better that they’re spotting nuances that you put in subconsciously.

When you understand that it will never feel completely done but it’s been long enough. You’ve done so many drafts and you feel like you’re going in a circle, you’ve been working on the book for so long. It’s time to either push the book into the world or else shove it in a drawer for a very long time.

The book I’m working on at present is at this stage. Either I do something with it, or I put it aside, and I really want to get this one published. It’s a lovely book and I think it’s turned out pretty well. So now I have to decide what to do with it. Anyone else with a project they feel is almost done? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

Why File Names Are My Bane

I nearly fell into a panic the other day because I couldn’t find series notes for a set of books I want to work on. I knew I’d written it, but I couldn’t find the words in any of the five other places that I’d put various notes. Fortunately, I kept looking and found it, finally. The name threw me off. Again.

I’ve only had this character for a day and a half

It happened again! One of the Summer Camp prompts led to something that has the potential to become a core part of my world. This one won’t necessarily go on the page of the book specifically, but I do think this particular character will exist at the heart of the world. Because he’s cool, and I adore this guy already.

Unexpected Detours

I’m neck deep in working on the World Anvil Summer Camp worldbuilding prompts. Diamond or Die! (If you know, you know.) It’s been a bit of a struggle so far because some of the prompts have covered things I’ve already got in my world, and others have to do with exploring a wilderness I don’t really need to investigate for my urban and suburban based story.

This Summer, I Write

I’m getting married! Not for a few months more, and not in the summer, but that’s good because it gives me plenty of time to prepare for the wedding and also write words. Lots and lots of words. Hopefully all the words.

Earth-Adjacent Worldbuilding

One of my favorite projects lately has been a superhero book series, and one of my favorite summer activities is the Summer Camp worldbuilding prompts put out by World Anvil in July. I’m not entirely sure how well those are going to mesh, but I do want to develop the background on this world. Which is difficult, because it’s Earth plus superheroes. There’s a lot of things that are already developed, and I won’t want to change up everything because that’s one of the advantages of this kind of story is you can work with what people already know.

So here’s a few things I’ve found about building a world that already partially exists. Just in case anyone else is as stumped as I was. (Also whenever I say “you,” I include myself as I am mainly reminding myself here and it’s simply a nice bonus that others might gain knowledge.)

Knowing Which Will Be Better

I don’t think my current project will be very good. Which is totally fine because it’s a first draft. I’ll get it there eventually, after a lot of work. The problem in this situation is that I have a completely different story that I want to work on that even in the outline phase feels like it will be a much better story. And also more fun to write, because it’s superheroes.

Imaginary Food

Writing a fantastical world has its perks, like not having to worry about getting history or science exactly right because I’m making up parts of it. The downside is, now I need to invent food for my characters to eat, because they’re on an alien world and there’s no such thing as apples. Or is there?

An End to November

I made it to the end of NaNoWriMo, and I survived! This month actually went very well in terms of time management, because I was able to get the majority of my word count done early in the month, and then was able to keep on top of that lead without dropping too many of my normal tasks.