As the year races to a close, I am probably not the only writer who is both fatigued and frustrated about the things I didn’t get done. But what about the flip side? Did I get anything of value accomplished this year? And it’s in remembering what I completed or started that I realize that taking the long view is less a mantra than a way of life for writers.
How I Normally Write
As an aficionado of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) for ten cycles now, I tend to write quickly. That might be construed to mean that I complete all writing assignments quickly. Far form it. That only means that I complete my first, ugly drafts quickly. The longer term process of editing and rewriting is what takes the most time. That’s where taking the long view comes in, and it can be a slog. Of course, if I tried to write something down in longhand, I’d be incredibly frustrated. I simply can’t write quickly enough for the thoughts in my brain. This is likely why I started using a typewriter in the fourth grade, that and my atrocious handwriting.
The Real Work of Writing
As I implied, the real work of writing is rewriting. That’s when you turn something raw into a polished piece of writing. It’s also far more difficult than a first draft. Generally, I edit everything at least three times before it goes to a professional editor.
If I had to quantify it, I’d say I take between sixty and one hundred hours to create a draft. That’s the active writing time, and not the hundred or so hours beforehand outlining, and creating characters and scenes.
The editing and rewriting easily takes one hundred and fifty hours, perhaps more. This varies depending on how many internal inconsistencies I find within the novel. Forcing myself to slow down to rewrite properly and carefully is a constant challenge.
But It Ain’t Done Yet
And there’s the rub: the time it takes to rewrite a novel or even a short story suggests to many of us that we haven’t accomplished much of anything. But that’s the wrong attitude. For by taking the long view, we’re not stopping our writing. In fact, we’re ensuring that it will take the best form it can.
What Did I Accomplish?
For one thing, one of my short stories was published in a Chesapeake Crimes Anthology this year. I’d tried on two previous occasions to get in to one of these anthologies. So, the third time was the charm and every much appreciated. The anthology has been nominated for an award and I will be submitting my story in the anthology—”Cui Bono”—for a Derringer Award from the Mystery Short Fiction Society.
Second, I’ve working on the outline for the fourth Flight of the Raven novel and completed much of the first draft on November prior to my knee surgery. I hope to get back into the novel once I am more fully recovered.
But there’s more in store for 2025. I plan to be more diligent about submitting short items to Pen in Hand, the Maryland Writers Association anthology, and look for additional places for my unpublished short fiction. I also plan to have Scarlet Moon, the third in the Flight of Raven series edited for publication in 2026. I’m doing that early so I can ask at least two people for blurbs I can use for the publication itself. That’s another advantage of taking the long view toward publicizing Scarlet Moon, I can get blurbs that weren’t available for Desert Son.
All in all, I’m energized by 2025 and what it holds in store. What about you?
