Having spent a computer and internet free vacation, I returned with the determination to get organized once and for all. Naturally, this included culling and filing away a gazillion documents on my OneDrive in that thing they call the Cloud. I still don’t trust it and much prefer the old-fashioned file-drawer with hard copies neatly put into hanging folders with colored coded labels – but I just don’t have the space. I live in a tiny little cottage.
Somewhere deep on my hard drive in a generic pale blue folder labeled BOTTOM DRAWER – was a partial manuscript. It was something I had written in 2017 for NaNoWriMo. For those unfamiliar with NaNoWriMo, it stands for National Novel Writing Month. The flagship program is an annual, international creative writing event in which participants attempt to write a 50,000-word manuscript during the month of November. I’ve done it a few times but given up after the first ten days because of the pressure. However, it appeared that in 2017, I had persevered!
To my shock, I had written 52,000 words. I do not remember writing any of it. Not a word. Is it possible to have written it in a dissociative fugue? I have re-read the partial three times and it’s not too bad at all.
Aptly titled The Diversion, I wrote it during the most miserable year of my life – my husband had left me for a much younger woman (argh! I know! What a cliché!), I’d had to sell our beloved house in Oregon alone and move into temporary accommodation and, after twenty-five years in the USA, had decided to move back ‘home’ with my two dogs – horribly traumatic for them. The icing on the cake was that I was turning sixty. It was a wretched time.
As it turned out, the change was a blessing in so many ways that I am grateful it happened. But, at the time – to quote the late Queen Elizabeth – it was my own annus horribilis.
I’ve changed so much since I wrote that story so I’m approaching it with fresh eyes. Thankfully there are plenty of resources online for this sort of thing and these tips have helped but I’m open to any suggestions from my fellow scribes.
Here are a few tips I’ve discovered online so far:
Janice Hardy’s Three Step Plan for “Returning to a Partially Finished Manuscript” suggests: 1. Read the entire manuscript again. 2. Review and Update the Outline Past Where You Stopped Writing (Pansters can skip this) 3. Revise three chapters prior to where you stopped writing. Hardy also suggests creating an “editorial map.” I always do a chapter-by-chapter summary noting the date, time, setting, bullet points about what must/is happening in that chapter, and then copying and pasting the first paragraph of the chapter and the last paragraph of the chapter. It was a tip given by a Kerry Madden a wonderful author and writing instructor at UCLA Extension. I do that exercise with all my manuscripts.
In Liz Hudson’s Writing Voices essay A Confession: Returning to a half-finished manuscript is tough, she suggests writing off-manuscript short stories and scenes, flashing out characters backstories and personalities that will never make the book. I love this idea.
But now I keep faffing about and every time I get to P.199 where I stopped writing on November 30, 2017 (I have written and published six books since then), I come to a stop. It’s like I am teetering on the edge of the blank page and I just can’t seem to take the plunge and trust the creative process.
Recently on this blog, I mentioned I wanted to rediscover the joy of writing. When I re-read this partial manuscript, the joy was right there on the page because I’d written it without any thought of what I would do with it. Now I want to finish the book I can already feel the heaviness of expectation. Will my agent like it? Can I get it published? Does it matter anyway?
I’d love your thoughts!
Here’s a suggestion for wannabe authors. You’ve pondered that writing project for years; now you have time to get those ideas down on paper (or computer, or recording device). What would it take to turn that dream into a manuscript?
I’ve opened membership to this site on a temporary basis. Here’s a place for you to learn about the author’s journey from “aspiring” to “avid.” Find out how to improve your writing, where to market your work, and ways to research trends in the industry. Get questions answered from an author who’s been there.
I’m a semi-retired college English instructor and published author with a doctorate in English composition. I self-published the Self-publishing Guide in 1979 and went on to self-publish print versions of a mystery series and several non-fiction books. I’ve given workshops through libraries, bookstores, writers organizations, and continuing education departments and have written for writers’ newsletters, homeschooling blogs, inspirational magazines, and publications such as the Des Moines Register.
Na-
“Traditionally, NaNoWriMo works best when you start a brand-new project. It may be an arbitrary distinction, but we’ve seen that novelists do better (and have more fun) when they’re free from the constraints of existing manuscripts. Give yourself the gift of a clean slate!
The Writers in Residence 
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