by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
So, I’ve added at least 20,000, maybe 30,000 words to the beginning of the third draft of this novel. One struggle I’ve had is being able to not make it so clear that I’ve added to the beginning. My fear of course, is, that the moment I hand this novel to a manuscript consultant, the first thing they’re going to tell me is to cut…about 30,000 words.
But you have to believe, I guess.
You have to lay out your vision and see what happens. While sometimes, it helps to overthink things a lot when writing a novel, but you can be in your head too much. Sometimes, you just have to do what you want to do and see what happens.
I’ve come up with a way to ease people into the story instead of just throwing them into it without much explanation.
But, in general, I’m very pleased with what I’ve managed to come up with. There are many, many known unknowns. Things that I just don’t know the ultimate significance of.
I just have to be patient. But I also need to buckle down and give myself some clear metrics to meet, otherwise it will be a year from now and I’ll still be spinning my wheels.
