So have you finished? Are you close? Even if you’re not, don’t give up. Sven isn’t a win/lose thing. As long as you keep writing, you win.

But for those that have already finished, if this is your first-or possibly your tenth ;)-some of you are probably wondering what next?

Well, there’s no easy answer to that. The thing with being a writer is that it doesn’t stop with the last word of the book. It doesn’t stop after you’ve finally finished that final, final draft. It doesn’t stop after you’ve had a friend read it for type-o’s, grammar, misspellings, etc.

Writing the book is really only the first step if you want to try to get it published. But every single one of us take a different route to getting published. Every one of us took a different route while trying to get published.

From here, you’ve got a few options. Do you think the book is ready for publication? Is it one you’d buy and read if somebody else wrote it? If so, then do your homework, start shopping around. Are you going to try for traditional publishing or maybe give e-publishing a start? Have you looked for an agents? Do you WANT an agent?

The internet is a vast resource for writers-maybe even a guidebook. You need to pick your route, but you’ve got options on which path to take.

Here are a few places to maybe help get you started-because beyond saying do your homework, I’m lousy at telling people what to do next. But others are great at it.

Sven III is close to wrapping up.

I’ve wrapped up one book. Getting close to wrapping up another. Even though I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen in the next few chapters, I can tell I’m close to done.

There have been times when people ask me, how do you know when you’re done?

Well, if you’re a writer, I think when you get there, you just know

If you’re not a writer, it’s not something I could explain.

But those keeping up with the challenge are writers. So you know. Are you in that downhill slide yet? Got that mad rush going to get those last words out on paper–or screen? If not, keep going. You’ll get there. If you are close, excellent. Finish it up and maybe we can all go out for margaritas.

Yikes! Forgot to blog! RT totally fried my brain and when I realized I had today–as in I should have posted this uh…16 hours ago? I figured a nice, quick quote would work.

Found this one

To write something, you have to risk making a fool of yourself.

by Anne Rice, found here.

And how very apt. Because right now, I’m writing something I’m not sure makes sense to anybody but me, something I’m not sure anybody will like, characters I think some people might hate…or at least dislike. And I’m wondering–why

Anne Rice has the answer. Writing sometimes meet taking chances that cool make you look…well, weird.

Take the chance!

Ever wondered why you write? From time to time, I do. Especially when things are really crazy and no matter what I do, I can’t seem to focus, or I can’t seem to get enough done. But then a story finally starts flowing as it should, or I get a really, really cool idea and then I remember.

I write because I have to. I write because I love it.

Something I keep forgetting… or…well, life keeps interfering with.

Epictetus
If you wish to be a writer; write!

Now, off to follow his advice.

If you’ve ever tried to write much more than a grocery list (or even that) then you know sometimes those distractions push in on you and threaten your sanity and your word count.

I’ve had one of those weeks, and I’m so ready for it to be over. Bad thing is, it’s Spring Break. The kids want to do stuff, and not just get sent off to their sitter. Last night, I made myself stay up until I got 2k done, and if need be, I’ll do the same today. Tomorrow. Every night until they go back to school.

A week full of distractions, the Easter holiday, edits that had me banging my head, trying to get all my stuff together for RT (eeek! It’s like three weeks away…), all of it is pushing in and crowding out the story, but I think I need to let Sven step in and kick my butt at this point.

Because I can’t start the NEXT story until this one is done…

Hope you all are having better luck ignoring your distractions than I am!

Shi
http://shilohwalker.com

I was skimming the comments from Wednesday’s check and something Jaci said caught my eye.

And Laura, don’t worry about catching up. Only work forward. If you didn’t start strong, don’t worry. Just think ahead and pick up your pace where you can. You’ll do fine.

Pacing is a weird thing. Some of write fast. Some of us don’t. But we write, otherwise we wouldn’t be involved in this challenge. What works for one isn’t going to work for others. What works for me might not work for you. Me, I don’t care if I have music playing or not when I work, but I know some writers can’t focus without it. I can’t focus so well sitting at my desk, so I tend to get more actual story-work (as opposed to edits) if I’m sitting on the couch with my laptop. I know some people who can’t do their writing anyplace but their desk. I know some writers who are satisfied if they get 1000 words done in a day, and one particular writer I know isn’t happy unless she does about 8000.

All different. But all of us have a story to tell, otherwise we wouldn’t be taking the time to write it down.

My words of wisdom today….when you sit down to write, don’t think about anything but the story. Just the story. When you’re writing it, make the story all that exists. Don’t worry about the challenge, don’t worry about whether or not the story is any good, don’t worry about whether or not it’s going to sell, and don’t worry about what to do once you’re done. No of those worries have easy solutions and worrying about them isn’t going to get your story written. Writing it is the only way to do that. So write now…worry later.

One of the hardest things about being a writer, for me at least, is making myself stay focused on the story when there are ten million other things whirling around in my head.

The kids go to the sitter during the day because I can’t write when they are here, so I can’t use them as an excuse for not meeting my goals. I focus better when it’s quiet, when there’s no TV, no kids, no DH around, but even when the house is quiet, I have the place all to myself, things intrude.

My own thoughts, worrying about promo or bills or whether or not the monster will need to have his tonsils out, worrying about an upcoming vacation, a disagreement with a friend, whatever…it manages to keep me distracted when I need to be working.

The only way to block it out sometimes is just through force. Drag myself away from the internet, drag my thoughts to the story, and just focus. During the day, it’s my work time. Blocking out all the other noise is sometimes the only way to get the work done.

Sven’s winding down. Just a few weeks left. Are you happy with the progress you’ve made this round?

All in all, I guess I am. I could have done a little better, but I accomplished my main goal, and that was getting done with the single title that’s due into Berkley on 2/1/08. With the holidays, three kids who kept passing bugs around, not to mention my own, I think I did as well as I could expect.

What about you? Did you accomplish your goals? Surpass them?

Or fall a little short? If you fell a little short, or you’re like me, did okay but wished for better…so what? The main thing is to get in the habit of writing daily. I started writing daily, or close to it, a while ago. It was one of the things I kept reading on a blog I visit regularly, pbackwriter.blogspot.com, even before Sven. That advice was the main reason I started up my own personal blog.

But even then, I didn’t force myself into any set kind of schedule. Sven’s helped me to do that. And trust me… for a disorganized type like me, getting into any sort of routine is quite a task.

Writing daily, or close to it, trains the brain for the job of writing. I keep saying close to it, because unless I’m on deadline or really caught up in the book, I don’t write on weekends, except for a blog post on occasion. Don’t wanna tire out the brain…okay, okay, I’ll be honest. I like my time off.

But, IMO, getting on a regular writing schedule is crucial if you’re really serious about writing. Whether it’s something we cram it in when we can around the day job, the kids, school, or something we do full time, we have to take it seriously. Taking it seriously as a writer means the same as taking your day job seriously. When I was working the day job, I couldn’t go in when I wanted, leave when I wanted. I had set hours. A routine.

This job is no different in that aspect. Granted, if I want to spend the day in workout clothes or jammies, barefoot, my hair a mess, I can. But I can’t just sit down once or twice a week, write a page here, a page there, and still expect to finish a book, sell a book, improve my writing, maintain my career.

More than anything, Sven’s helped me focus on that. A routine. A set amount of words I like done in a day, a set time when I try to do it.

I hope he’s done the same for you. Even if it’s just a half an hour at lunch, or forty five minutes at night after the kids go to sleep, if you can get in a regular routine and stick to it, I bet it’s going to help.

I’m not an organized type.

I don’t like disorganization and I hate clutter, but I also hate the work that goes into being organized.

The organized writer types can often save themselves headaches when it comes to things like plotting out, character sketches, first drafts, second drafts, polishing up that final draft…

Me? I usually only have one or two drafts. The only time I actually focus on plotting out is when the idea is much more complex than my normal. A book I have coming out in June was one of those. I actually sat down and made myself do an outline, chapter by chapter, where that book was leading. Now granted, my idea of an outline is one piddly little paragraph for each chapter. But it helped me lay things out and keep all those threads together.

But I suspect the plotter and the pantster don’t differ too much when it comes to finish up the book. Even after we write THE END… or if you simply think it as you write that final word, we know we’re not done.

There’s still a read through. There’s still edits. If you are a writer who does a first and second draft, then you know those rough draft will usually end up needing editing and fleshing it out.

I tend to edit here and there as I write. When I sit down to write here in a few minutes, I’m going to skim back over what I wrote yesterday, make sure it jives and then I’ll start working. Once every couple weeks, I’ll do a read through and make sure the ideas I started the book with are still there. As I do this, I try to catch the type o’s, the missing words, find where I switched the heroine’s eye color in mid-scene and make sure I didn’t accidentally write the wrong hero’s name (I do this a lot).

Because I’m almost always editing, I don’t tend to do as much formal editing when I finish the book. At that point, I’m so sick of close to the book, that I can’t find any editing mistakes, even though the book is full of them. So I ship it off to one of my advance readers who proofs it. After getting it back from her, then I go back through.

But this is where I get hung up. Because at that point, I’ve had a few days away from the book and I start seeing things here that I could have fixed. Or there that I could have fixed. Nothing wrong with that…unless you obsess on it. I kid you not, I can go back through every last book I’ve written, and at this point, it’s probably close to fifty titles all in all, and every single one of them, I’d find a slew of things I wasn’t satisfied with.

By no means am I a perfectionist. I know I’ve never written a perfect book. But I can say that if I’d gone back and rewritten and polished and tweaked and expanded and deleted everything I wrote until I was satisfied….. I wouldn’t have ever signed my first contract because I’d still be tweaking that first book.

It’s not wrong to go back and fix this, expand a bit here and there. We need to do this. When you’re writing in the heat of the moment, hear often becomes here and blue can become blew. I’ve left out the, of, hand, neck, knife, she, it…. and the list goes on… and on…

But if you constantly find yourself tweaking, rewriting, adjusting, tightening, fleshing out, expanding or deleting, you might need to take a step back and ask yourself… Am I doing this for the right reason? Or could it be possible I’m getting a little obsessive?

And now… I better go get to work.