Lethal Disposal

How do you know you’ve got a good story?

Sometimes I get these ideas. A sentence pops into my mind. A character. A theme. A scene. A short description. I think, yeah this could be fun to write about. I start writing. One page. One chapter. I get to 20,000 or 30,000 words and I stop cold in my tracks. 

What am I doing? This completely sucks. I put the manuscript to the side, mope for a couple of weeks and start on a different project. 

Frustrating or what?

Well, not this time. I managed to finish a 90,000 word manuscript last December. Yep, that’s about a 360 page novel if it went to print. Not that it will, at least not in the condition it’s in today. It sucks. I’m not just saying that because I’m my own harshest critic but because I really know that my first drafts reek of crap. Lots of poor dialogue, scenes that are all over the place and a story line that doesn’t transition smoothly from beginning to end. 

What I have discovered from this 90,000 word manuscript is that the concept isn’t too bad. It’s a high concept idea that could work if it gets reworked. Reworked, rewritten, revised. 

This years that’s the goal. Rewrite and edit the heck out of this manuscript until it’s ready for someone else to lay their eyes on it. 

I’m not starting any new projects - at least nothing novel length wise this year. Lethal Disposal (the only working title I could come up with) is going to get pruned and preened and before the year is out, I’m going to get a second opinion before chucking it in the trash.