I reached a major milestone last night with my WIP. I finished the initial draft of the book. I know there's still a lot of work to do, but I just have to say that it feels amazing to have reached this point!
Congratulations! I remember how elated I was when I finished my first draft. Now, try to put it down for a couple months and get ready for the hard part.
Finishing your first is an amazing feeling Soak it up! You won't soon forget it. Obviously there is still work to do but that will be enjoyable as well. With each edit, the story gets better and better. Save your old copies of your manuscript ( hit "Save As" for instance, Edit 1) so you can go back and show other writers who don't like their first drafts. If they have read your final copy they will probably be amazed at the difference. It is humbling for me to read my old stuff.
The previous posters here are both right. It is great to finish the first draft, and you should totally go and do something else. I found that to be really, really, hard. But I did. I wrote short stories, started 3 other novels (currently about a third finished with one, the other two are sitting at 15K each...) and generally just put the first one out of my mind. Months later, I come back for another pass at it, and I am much, much more critical. A key lesson that I am learning is to not rush. I am always way too eager to see something finished. Good takes time. Great takes even longer.
Good job, Scott! I have yet to even get remotely close to that point. The thought of a book is very intimidating so for now I will continue with the shorts ~Chad Lutzke
Thank you all for the kind words. This forum has been a great help to me. I think I would have been lost at times without the information and sounding board that I found here. The editing process is already in motion to a degree. I have a friend that has a doctorate in English and whose judgement I trust very much helping with that. Right now, he's reading each chapter individually and making minor edits for style and typos. When he's done with that, we're going to sit down and "gut it" as he said. I'm dreading that and yet still eager to get to it at the same time. He told me that he's seen an opening for some other stories based on what he's read so far, although he said he's going to save that until he's read the whole thing. I read it myself yesterday looking to make sure I didn't leave out anything that I wanted to put in, and I found an opening for another story myself. I think I'm going to begin developing that idea a bit and maybe my friend's suggestions too. The euphoric feeling I have right now demands that I do something!
I didn't want to post an entire new thread for this, but I've finally come up with a possible title for my book, and I want to get some input on it, so I'll just ask here. The basic storyline is that a twin, twelve-year-old brother and sister that investigate an abandoned farmhouse that's rumored to be haunted after the brother sees a light in an upstairs window. They end up uncovering a stolen goods ring but end up getting into a lot more than they bargained for when they first checked things out. My title idea is "Hazard at the Haunted Farmhouse." Does it sound catchy and appropriate enough?
It sounds a bit Enid Blyton. "The Famous Five and the Hazard at the Haunted Farmhouse." How about.... "Double Trouble" It is about twins, after all? "Double Trouble and the Haunted Farmhouse." Embrace your inner Enid and create a series? "Double Trouble on vacation!" "Double Trouble and the Mystery of the Missing Millions." Or maybe, if you are keen on your original title, shorten it slightly to. "Hazard at the Haunted House" which is slightly more appealing due to the alliteration.
I chose the word "hazard" aiming for some degree of alliteration, so I think I like the shortened version "Hazard at the Haunted House" better.
Aces! I still like the sound of Double Trouble. If you are writing for a preteen audience, this would be a good hook, I think.
