This morning I woke up knowing that I would be typing these words: THE END. The first draft of Beast is now finished, but I have mixed feeling about it. I am very excited (but equally nervous) for the draft to be complete, even though “complete” isn’t quite the right word.
This morning marks the first time since I’ve really dedicated myself to writing (and finishing) a story, that I’ve actually completely finished a planned first draft. When I started Beast I had several scenes that I knew were going to be needed, and basically outlined everything before I started writing—something I’ve never done before—and now all those scenes are written.
Several new ideas have popped up throughout the writing process, both good and bad, some of which I even included in the first draft. But I came to the conclusion a week ago that if I didn’t have a serious plan for completing the draft, rewrites and edits that the book might never get finished. So I moved all my new ideas and rewrites into a completely different folder and focused on finishing what I had planned and told myself that I wasn’t allowed to work on the new material until the old was finished. I’m not sure if that is a completely logical way of doing things, but being able to mark then end of one stage and consciously moving on to the next was a big milestone for me and makes me want to reach another.
Now comes the process of editing, rewriting and editing and polishing and ultimately publishing. This project started out as a short story and has grown into much more. Hell, even the main character has changed, but I feel that the overall story blows my original idea out of the water. (Now, whether it’s actually good or not, that’s still up for debate.)
The writing was the fun part, the publishing part, however, terrifies me. My goal is to have the book ready to publish by this summer, I think it’s completely doable, but since I’ve never done this before my estimates could be off. The entire process is a little overwhelming; I’ve broken it down into several stages and having just completed Stage One I feel confident that I’ll be able to power through the remaining stages.
So, with as much certainty as I can have, I would like to put this out there:
Beast by Josh Hayes COMING SUMMER 2014
This morning marks the first time since I’ve really dedicated myself to writing (and finishing) a story, that I’ve actually completely finished a planned first draft. When I started Beast I had several scenes that I knew were going to be needed, and basically outlined everything before I started writing—something I’ve never done before—and now all those scenes are written.
Several new ideas have popped up throughout the writing process, both good and bad, some of which I even included in the first draft. But I came to the conclusion a week ago that if I didn’t have a serious plan for completing the draft, rewrites and edits that the book might never get finished. So I moved all my new ideas and rewrites into a completely different folder and focused on finishing what I had planned and told myself that I wasn’t allowed to work on the new material until the old was finished. I’m not sure if that is a completely logical way of doing things, but being able to mark then end of one stage and consciously moving on to the next was a big milestone for me and makes me want to reach another.
Now comes the process of editing, rewriting and editing and polishing and ultimately publishing. This project started out as a short story and has grown into much more. Hell, even the main character has changed, but I feel that the overall story blows my original idea out of the water. (Now, whether it’s actually good or not, that’s still up for debate.)
The writing was the fun part, the publishing part, however, terrifies me. My goal is to have the book ready to publish by this summer, I think it’s completely doable, but since I’ve never done this before my estimates could be off. The entire process is a little overwhelming; I’ve broken it down into several stages and having just completed Stage One I feel confident that I’ll be able to power through the remaining stages.
So, with as much certainty as I can have, I would like to put this out there:
Beast by Josh Hayes COMING SUMMER 2014
RSS Feed