It's Crunch Time With Only Three Weeks Left Until the Black Orchid Novella Deadline

It's week 7 of writing a mystery novella in 10 weeks, and it's getting hectic

My Writing and Editing Pattern So Far

As I wrote last time, I have been scrambling to get words on Sundays for the deadline for critique group 1. I scramble to do minor edits the following weekend to give it to critique group 2. This has been my holding pattern and has worked well for me.

Unfortunately, I am now in week seven, and things need to change. With only three weeks to go, it’s crucial that not only do I finish this novella, but do a full edit.

However, I need to put one foot in front of the other. That means finishing draft one by Friday night. At the latest, Saturday night. I currently have around 13,733 words. Passing 15,000 but staying under 20,000 won’t be a problem. This is a perfect sized story, but that still leaves anywhere between 2,000 and 6,000 words to write. That’s a lot for week seven!

The Challenging End to a Mystery Story

One of the harder parts is writing the ending. I know what’s going to happen, but I find myself going back over the story, connecting clues, seeing if any clues need to be sharpened (half of them do), and making sure the story makes sense. I also need to pick the best scene order with which to unfold the mystery (while keeping my original short story that inspired the mystery in mind).

All of this means writing the ending is much harder than writing the beginning. Usually, endings aren’t hard. With my literary, romance, and fantasy work coasting to the end is a frenzied pleasure. It’s a closure to all the tension, and a smooth ride to the inevitable conclusion. With mystery, there are too many strings flying about and too many options for the denouement and scene order. I’m starting and stopping more as I write.

I was warned by a fellow mystery writer. And so now, I have warned you: the end of the mystery novella is where the detailed writing work begins.

What Editing the Mystery Novella is Going to Look Like

I’m not worried about finishing the novella. I am worried about editing it by May 31st (the deadline). I am happy to say, I have gotten good feedback these last couple of weeks of what to change. The changes should make this story stronger, and I am excited to polish this work to a blinding shine. Prior to this, I wasn’t getting a ton of editing suggestions, so this is good because I know what I need to do.

However, as predicted, that means a ton of work in these last weeks, starting from chapter 1. While I have made small edits here and there, much bigger edits need to made at this juncture.

Not to mention, I have to take multiple documents, combine them into a master document, and then edit the master document. Because I sent it out to the groups in four different sections, the project is in a state of disarray as far as having the critiques organized. Even though I have made changes already, I still need to go back, read each critique again, and make sure I fixed every problem. I also need to find my notes, remember what I personally wanted to change, and fix that too.

Then, I need to send it to a friend, get more edits and write another draft.

Then, I will send part five out to both critique groups.

All in three weeks.

No problem, right?

The hard truth is that I have slowed down my social media posts, stopped marketing Tumultuous Twenties, and will take a few extra weeks to put my virtual retreat together for the summer. That’s not a bad thing. Part of this experiment was seeing how I could balance everything and what shifts I would need to make.

In so many ways, this experiment is already a huge success, but I’ll dive more deeply into that in a future post. Until next time!