Okay, so truth be told I am pretty mediocre at keeping my new year’s resolutions. Maybe not mediocre. . . more like amazing with the small stuff and unreliable with the rest. I did manage to dedicate more time this year than 2016 to writing, unfortunately, editing had to take a back seat. Though I managed to write 4 (well finishing the 4th) first drafts for different manuscripts this year, the only thing I was able to polish to any degree was a 40k novella released in August.
If 2017 was the year of writing, 2018 will be the year of re-writing. I’m saying it here so I don’t have the opportunity to forget, or at least not the same opportunity to forget since this blog did not exist a year ago.
Once I finish the current WIP I am working on, my primary focus will be to re-writing three of the four drafts I popped out this year. My mammoth, a futuristic satire in a world where automation has replaced everything but celebrity, and the currency is influence (or reach), will take me the longest. I plan on taking the sort of time NFL teams are supposed to take in developing rookie quarterbacks because of all the stories I’ve produced recently, it’s the one I am most proud of. It may take a long time to shine, but I know there’s something great in it.
As for the other books, one is in need of MAJOR re-writes as I changed the occupation of the main character, and the conclusion (which of course means everything leading to the conclusion needs to change). This one being the Absolute, which is about a painter’s strange relationship with God. The main plot follows his time painting a mural for the new chapel in his hometown.
The third book I plan to get to has a working title of The Pathetic Tycoon and it’s a rather violent tale between an old-time criminal and a young rival with a legitimate business he inherited from his parents.
It should be a fun year. . . well a stressful as re-writing tends to be. What I don’t like about re-writing is you don’t get the same satisfaction of goals like you do on a rough draft. I mean knocking out a word count goal offers instant gratification. Re-writing is much more macro, and you don’t really see the results until you reach the end. At least for me, rough drafts are more about “wow look what I’ve done,” while re-writes are more about “wow look how much I have left.”
I know it’s a lot of hard work, but as Stephen King put it “Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.”
R.K. Gold 