I’ve been trying to get back into the groove of working on Three Weeks (the humourous novel I’m working on for anyone new). I’ve definitely run into what’s likely to be my biggest hurdle in novel writing, with this project and future ones. I need to find a way to get past it.
That hurdle is an editing obsession. I find myself second-guessing everything I write.
I do think this is a bigger problem with the comedy than it will be for other things though. Frankly, it’s hard to be funny!
I’m most in my comedic element when I’m just being myself – when I’m speaking my mind, no holds barred. My main character is supposed to have a similar dry, sarcastic kind of wit to her, albeit a bit more “obvious.” It’s very difficult to try to be like that on purpose. To do it at all, I can’t be writing – my character has to be writing (this is a first person piece), so I have to be so much in her head that her “thoughts” become my own. It’s kind of fun – kind of scary.
What sounds good when I’m “just writing” sometimes doesn’t feel right at second look. And I know the problem is that I’m taking that second look more than the actual words. I need to let her get from beginning to end of her story before I over-analyze her, and I’m very much struggling with that.
That said, I’m still in the beginning segment of the manuscript. :(
Something else I’ve been thinking – these 15 sub-stories are just too much. I wanted them brief in short story style, but I really think some need to go. I don’t know how many I’ll keep (I always intended to cut about 5 at the end, so maybe I should cut them before drafting, so I expand the others as I write them instead of doing major fill-in additions later). The extra stories would actually be perfect for a blog tied to the book (I was actually thinking this entire book would make for a pretty interesting fictional blog instead of book format, but I just don’t think I have a good enough marketing scheme in me to pull that kind of project off).
So anyway… things aren’t at a stand-still, but they’re not moving as quickly as I’d like. Fortunately I’m not in a huge rush on this project, but I really should soon set a deadline to have the first draft completed – that might help me get over the editing obsession if I’m feeling a bit “rushed” to get from one section to the next. We shall see.
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Cathy Miller
Amandah
Andrew Kardon
Amelia Ramstead
Lori
Oh my goodness, I know exactly what you’re talking about!
For being about a year old, I have to say this post still rings true. lol But, although I haven’t spent much time on my fiction this year, I have taken a peek at the three outlines recently and re-discovered how important it is to forget about editing during the first draft. As much as I was doing that back then, with completely fresh eyes now I see that so much of it (even edited) is crap. That’s a part of the fun of it though — just getting it out and fixing it up later. Looking at the stories now I know I want to take them all in somewhat different directions meaning major overhauls (and meaning those edits before were just wasted time that could have gone into more drafting).
I don’t think I’d want to do a comedic novel or story. I’m rather joke-oriented, and I don’t have the patience to build characters around that. I’d rather just write lighthearted story ideas.
As much as those types of books might seem easier when you’re reading them, they’re actually much tougher to write — gives me much more respect for comedy screenwriters, let me tell ya!