An Odd Thing

I am rewriting the novel I wrote in last year's Nanowrimo.

Not that's anything odd about rewriting a Nanowrimo novel, I do this all the time. The odd thing is, I've only just completed the first draft and now I'm doing a rewrite.

My usual process, and I've done this for far too many novels and not enough short stories, is this:

* Write a quick & short first draft.

* Put it aside for a few months while I work on other things.

* Come back to it fresh, and do a rewrite. This is where I add in all the structure, make all that has to happen does happen and get to know the characters.

* Put it aside for a few months while I work on other things.

* Come back to it fresh and add in the emotional & descriptive stuff.

* Fuss, fiddle & tweak, while writing query letters & stuff

So it's a slow journey for an individual novel (this is why I've only got one submittable) but it's a sort of a rolling process that, on theory, moves all them closer to being "finish".

When I've tried to do a two-draft novel (with one major) rewrite, I've got bogged down because I was trying to do too much. It's also hard to say "Just get it down and fix it in the rewrite" when you don't intend to do a rewrite. So this is my process that works for me.

Enter Falcon.

This novel's coming-to-be was different from the start, but that's another post. Come November, it took me about *mumble* days to write and then I went off to concentre on exams and other WIPs. Towards the end of November, I started getting whispers "Rewrite me." No bloody way. It was just over two weeks from when I'd finished. Instead, I started on the "final" draft for Fox, the other planet-highwayman books, because it's closed to being done. But I couldn't get into it, what with it being summer and all the end-of-year/Christmas/New Year stuff and this other novel screaming "Rewrite ME."

So, come the turn of the year, I went back to Falcon. There was this thought that it would soon become stale and I could go back to working on what I "should" be working on.

I'm currently partway through chapter 2 and I've discovered two more odd things. It's trying to be a "two draft" novel and working! And somewhere during December, my writing style changed. The words I use & the type of sentences I put them in has changed. I also prefer to work first thing in the morning rather than last thing at night.

All of which is good. But it does show that just because something works for you, doesn't mean it will always work for you.