Still Working…and Procrastinating

I am such a horrible procrastinator when it comes to writing my novel. Seriously, it’s never gonna get published at the rate I’m going.

I’m still up in the air about 1 POV or 3 POVs…so I am going to write a sample chapter then the next time I’m up in critique (the end of October) I’ll ask them and see what they think about me changing the POV or leaving it the same. Sometimes I don’t mind third person but then there are times I’m wondering if I could get the story conveyed better by just focusing on the main character.

Anyway, I’ve made myself a goal list

1. OCTOBER 5th: Have a sample chapter written in first person.
2. OCTOBER 25TH: Have a rough outline done for both 1st person POV and 3rd person POV possibilites.
3. NOVEMBER 1ST: Decide once and for all if book will be in third person POV or first person POV.
4. DECEMBER 1ST–Have completed the first rough draft of my novel.
5. SUMMER 2009–Send manuscript off to editor
6. DECEMBER 1ST 2009–Begin sending queries out to literary agents
7. 2012–Hopefully have the book published…….

In between December and the summer, a BIG focus has to be the research factor. Possibly this will continue until I send it out in December of 2009 to the first agent. Not sure if this is realistic enough or not…I may not be allowing adequate time in between the editor going over it AND getting it back to me in time for me to make the necessary changes. Possibly may have to back this up, but the goal is to at least get queries sent in by the beginning of 2010. Perhaps the book will finally be accepted and then published by 2012…:P

Of course it would be better if all of this could be done sooner but I know how much I procrastinate and I know how much my inner editor tends to take forever on going over things….as well as the massive and intense research I know must come as well.

One of the goals I had was to get to northern Japan where a good part of the book takes place…HOWEVER, I can’t see that happening in this short amount of time, especially since I know it’d require a good 10K to travel there, spend a week to ten days, and then come back. For now online pictures will have to do…

New outline nearly complete

I’ve been working diligently on my “new” outline for my book–the first person POV as opposed to the original third person POV. I still have quite a few plot holes and places where I’m having a great deal of writer’s block, but I’m thinking as I write it, it’s going to change some from the preliminary outline.

Now it’s not set in stone or anything–I haven’t written in first person in ages–so there’s a chance it may not flow right or convey the story in the right way and I may go back to third person. If that happens, I’ll have to fix everything a third time, because the current third person one confuses me (not a good sign if it confuses the author…).

Why the change in POV? Mainly because the book would simply be way too long for the third person and the three different viewpoints and stories that I’d have to develop and converge. I’m not doing away with third person entirely–in the first person version, I have every two-three chapters another character’s viewpoint to help flesh the story out a bit; however it won’t get as detailed as the other version; only the necessities will be covered.

Also, I wanted this story to be more about my main character than anything else, and the other viewpoint characters were taking away much of the focus on her.

Again, I’m not sure if this is going to work–not only can I not remember the last fictional story I wrote in first person, I’m afraid that the occasional third person view may confuse some readers and interrupt the flow. I guess I have to actually write it and see…