Reconstructing

I'm almost 40,000 words into my novel now. Even with the outline, nothing has happened yet. I know that things are going to be happening. Soon. But so far I have 40,000 words of set up and generic relationships.

I was feeling like it was really dragging and I have a good friend who is always honest with me so when she asked to read what I was working on I handed it over. We met for coffee today and she had some really helpful tips. I'm excited. This has potential to be a really awesome book and she understands the direction that I want to go with it. Its such a relief to have people who understand the vision you have and how to help you get there when you are unsure.

I am going to have to do a bit of reconstructing to the outline. Since this was my first one I am learning a whole lot from it. I now know that I will probably never work without an outline ever again. It has kept me motivated and on track. It helps me to be productive and to know exactly what it is that I need to write that day. I finally know my writing personality and what I need in order to finish. And an outline is definitely that thing.

That being said, this baby is coming sooner rather then later. This book is turning out to be way more then just a fluffy read. Its turning out to have more perspectives, and more issues that my characters have to overcome. I have decided that instead of beating myself up about not being done before the baby comes, I am going to work toward consistency instead. I want to be able to write the best product that I possibly can and in order to do that I am going to have to do some reconstructing. Which may mean losing scenes, adding scenes and moving them around. I could do this during the editing stage, but I think it will save me a lot of time to do it now rather than later. Especially since I am adding in a whole third perspective to add some much needed depth. I need to do that now.

So. The new goal is to work on this this weekend. I want to reconstruct this and get it back to something that I can work through. And instead of killing myself trying to write a crazy number of words everyday in order to have a finished manuscript by the time Harper gets here, I am going to just say, 2000 minimum. If I get more, great, if not, I will not beat myself up about it.

Its funny because instead of feeling overwhelmed and upset I feel renewed. I know the steps that I need to take to make this story a truly awesome read, to have characters that people will really care about.

The further I get into this process, the more I see that it is imperative to surround yourself with people who can see your vision and understand what you are trying to accomplish. Sometimes you may not want to hear what they have to say, but its always done in love. Never in a way that when you walk away you feel as though you should never write another thing in your life. Nine times out of ten if you really think about it, you will find that you agree with their suggestions and can see how they would add to what you are trying to accomplish. I'm lucky to have surrounded myself with friends who care about my writing as much as I do and are willing to be honest with me so that I can create something awesome. Not only to help me work out the kinks, to tell me when there wasn't enough build up or emotion, but also what they love or found funny. Thank you to my good friend who does this for me! Your input is everything to me!