Editing

So I've started editing Where the Music Ends. I'm a bit leery about getting to the part written during NaNo, just because I don't want to get there and hate what I wrote. But so far I'm enjoying the story. I rewrote the 'prologue' (it's very short; I really hate prologues that are twenty pages long, you get interested in the story it's telling, and then you're thrown a hundred years forward into chapter one which is way less interesting), but I'm not sure I'll even keep it.

This story has very few characters. I didn't set out to make it that way, but the fact is I find it difficult to handle large numbers of named characters. There is Alice, my main character; Gilbert, who is also a main character, though none of it is told from his POV; the witch (actually, she doesn't have a name; suggestions welcome!); and four others who have names.

The book I'm thinking about working on next will have a lot more characters; I think my main difficulty with that is that introducing anyone besides the ones who are present from the beginning always feels awkward. I need to work on my introductions, apparently.

Oh, and I would like to recommend Google Drive. I have two computers that I use for writing, and so lately I've either written it on a word processor and then pasted it into the Drive or written it directly on the Drive doc. It's really nice to be able to go between computers without having to email things to myself; everything is saved automatically and if my computer crashes I won't lose anything.

Now I'll leave you with an excerpt and then get back to editing!

“How did you keep from turning back after you were wounded?” asked Alice. “I had to run.”

“I climbed a tree and held on as tightly as I could, and … sang as loudly as I could.” He looked embarrassed. “You can be glad you weren't within hearing distance.”

Alice laughed. “Joseph and I are terrible singers. Our mother sings like a lark.” She stopped, refusing to let her thoughts of Joseph go any further. “I suppose we can start back, slowly. You need to have your leg looked at.”

Finis

Where the Music Ends is officially finished! I overcalculated the number of words I would need. I ended up with just over 20,000 words, when I thought it would be twice that. Ah well.

Yesterday I procrastinated quite a while before writing. Then I wrote about a thousand words, then later that night I sat down and wrote the last three thousand.

And then ... the story was over. Weirdly, I didn't feel ecstatic or even surprised. But this is the first time I've written a long book, beginning to end, in six years or so. The first time I've written The End on anything longer than a short story or several-chapter fanfic.

Now I have a lot of tidying up to do. I didn't put in much filler, so that's good, but it's far from perfect. I'll set it aside for a while before I begin editing, but I'm excited to be at this stage.

But now, I'm not sure what I'll do for the rest of November. Maybe I'll outline the next book I have in mind and begin writing it (it doesn't have anything to do with Where the Music Ends, in case you're wondering; different world, different characters).