Finally Back to My Novel

Remember, right when I started this blog, that I said I had just finished the first draft of my novel, Devil May Care, and that I was going to let it sit around for a month before I started editing it? And then after that month was over I said I’d wait one more month until school was out?

Well, school has been out three weeks, but I FINALLY went back to my novel. In the last three days, I reread the 341 page manuscript. It was painful and uplifting at the same time.

I knew that the beginning of the novel wasn’t good. It was rough, and I didn’t really know where I was going with the plot. And though the writing at the end of the manuscript is some of the best I think I’ve ever done, the writing at the beginning…is not.

I wrote the entire novel without an outline. I basically had no idea what the plot was going to be as I wrote it. This is the way I write and I don’t regret it, but it definitely left my work cut out for me as an editor.

I am, of course, having existential crises every two seconds: This has no plot! My main character is one dimensional! There’s too much romance! There’s not enough romance!

I’m trying to stay positive, but it’s hard.

The thing is, I really like Devil May Care. But I’m also realizing that I need to do a lot of work on it. I’m going to rearrange events in the plot, add depth to more side characters, and flesh out my main characters. There are some elements of the conclusion of the novel that I know I need to add, but I haven’t yet figured out what they’re going to be.

I have a lot of work. And it’s summer, so motivation is taking a while to show up. But I’m taking this seriously. Now that I’m back inside the DMC universe, I’m ready to work.

 

Keeping this in mind, there will probably be less Hell and Styx posts for the next few months. I know I’m sort of in the middle of a plot line right now, and I promise I will work on it while I edit. Just, you know, slower.

I hate editing. Seriously. The last novel I wrote died when I tried to edit it. That’s the reason (one of the reasons) I switched to Devil May Care. So I’m kind of scared at the idea of editing DMC, which is my favorite manuscript I’ve ever written.

I just have to remember this: