13 July 2011

Upon the "completion" of one's first novel

Intrepid Readers,

I have recently finished typing up my first full-length novel (weighing in at somewhere over 70k words). I have to say that I'm a little disappointed. This is for several reasons. (1) I don't in fact feel the huge weight drop off my chest because (2) I have to go back and edit AGAIN. For some reason, handwriting my entire novel, reading it and then editing it while I typed did not turn out to be a magical formula for flawless writing. In fact, I have more editing than ever to do because (horror!) I enlisted the help of other people to read my novel and give me feedback. So, now I have to go through and sort out all the comments from other folks and meld them into my novel to make a more cohesive and perfect narrative, which no matter how I labor, will never be the masterpiece trapped in my head.

Apparently, I must delve into the strange world known as Networking and do research to actually sell my novel now. The books say that this is the real hard work. I'm not going to lie; I am terrified. Some agents and editors are rumored to eat men twice my size in a single bite. Good thing Writer's Digest has a list of Preditors and Editors I can look into.

On the brighter side, I now can go through and edit my fourteen year old cousin's werewolf novel. (Which weighs in at 45k words and a decade earlier than my work - quite impressive, really).

Keep on writing,
-Thomas Mercurial