I finished my first novella this week!! It’s only the first draft, so I know I still have a bunch of work to do with it, but for now it’s done. I have to say it was much harder to write it than I expected it to be. I think it’s because I didn’t spend a lot of time planning this one. I just sort of had an idea and went with it. I’m not sure that way of writing works for me. So I wasn’t surprised when I had to stop in the middle and spend some time on an outline of where the story started and where it was going. The characters and the plot changed completely! Just about the only thing that stayed the same was the setting. My original idea was just too simple for 20,000 words. I think what I have now is much more interesting and fun to read.
I’m still going to spend some time revising and polishing, but for now I’m going to take a break from it. I need to get a little distance from it so that I can go back and read it with a fresh eye to find any potential problems. I have plenty of time to work on it still before submitting it for consideration for an anthology, if I still decide to submit it. I can take my time and work with it to make sure it’s as good as it can be before I have to send it in to meet the deadline. Or I may decide that it would be better suited for somewhere else.
Right now I’m just happy that I completed it. I’ve never written a novella before and it was a good challenge. I set a goal to complete it by the end of August and I met that goal which in my eyes is a huge accomplishment. Especially since I wanted to give up in the middle! I didn’t give, I pushed through, and in the end I think I ended up with a decent novella. I’m hoping when I go back to it, I’ll think it’s awesome, or at least know what to do to it to make it awesome. That’s why it’s called a WIP though, right?
Now I need to come up with a catchy title. I think the one I have currently is kind of lame. Hmmm…..
4 pings
amkuska says:
August 27, 2010 at 10:52 am (UTC -4 )
Congratulations! It can be really hard to finish a draft when working with that many words. You must be very proud of yourself. 🙂
hthurmeier says:
August 28, 2010 at 2:40 pm (UTC -4 )
Thanks! It’s a great feeling to set a goal and accomplish it. I still have revisions to do on it, but at least the first draft is done.
Shoshanna Evers says:
August 28, 2010 at 9:21 am (UTC -4 )
Congrats on finishing your novella!
Taryn Kincaid says:
August 28, 2010 at 3:01 pm (UTC -4 )
Finishing is the biggest battle! Congrats on a great achievement. I’ve grown to like the novella form. It’s making me a more disciplined writer I think. (Shush, Shoshanna!) It forces you not to be so indulgent, not to clear your throat so much, to cut some repetition or backstory or things that don’t move the story. Also, I find that if you think you’re writing 15k or 20k, especially if you have a specific target in mind, you don’t give yourself the leisure of forever to work on it. You set deadlines for yourself and you stick to them. At least I tend to. With longer novels, I can drag out the time-frame forever.