Okay, I have a novel draft. So now what? (And thank you all for the congratulations – much appreciated!)
Revisions, obviously, but it needs to sit for a while first. I envision it like bread dough: all the ingredients have been kneaded together, and it needs to rise for a while before I rework it, add the cinnamon, form it into its final shape.
I’ve been neglecting Stringpage and my blogs and websites, so I need to put some time into those. Actually, I’ve been neglecting pretty much everything that isn’t novel-writing or procrastination from novel-writing (except work). I definitely need to put some time into the business and the rest of my life. It’s tax time, which means inventory and all that. This is a necessary time to put some time into that.
And making tangible things: I also haven’t been weaving or knitting or anything.
And nonfiction. I have a review and an essay due soon, and some other projects to work on, including one really big one that should have been done by now.
But what I really want to do, besides spend a day or two in bed with a novel that somebody else wrote, is work on short fiction. My fiction-writing time has gone into novel, novel, novel, and I want to do something else for a bit before I dive into rewriting.
Revise and submit:
Crossing the Water
The Regiomontanus Problem
Finish:
Oyster
Stars Like Clockwork Overhead
The Gray of Her Eyes
Untitled Christmas cookie story
Ponder:
Untitled urban fantasy short story
Book of Signs and Shadows (novel outline)
Untitled urban fantasy (novel outline)
I want to get the two finished stories polished and out in the next month, and have at least two of those in progress well underway.
It’s good to have a plan, right?