I’ve finally finished Summer at Hotel Fulcrum. This is the longest work of fiction I’ve completed by a long shot (probably the next longest would be under 2000 words). So this is a really big achievement for me, and a project that I’ve learnt a lot from. Specifically, the following:

Never publish a work in progress
I mean, I don’t regret publishing Hotel Fulcrum as a serial, because doing so gave me a schedule to stick to. But it’s obvious that what I have now is not what I started with, and I need to rewrite it a lot. Also, the added pressure to make it publish-worthy without actually being able to do so (because I was still working through the story) is not something I want to repeat. I admire fanfic and Wattpad writers who can just post every week and apparently still keep a story together. It’s not for me.

Scheduling and planning works (even more when the schedule is external)
I’ve been a pantser for a long time. But I’ve found a general plan does help me not write myself into a corner. And having goals for where in my story I want to be at a particular time works. Especially when I’ve told people I was going to publish every fortnight. That was helpful. There have been times where I’ve set time limits for my novels, only to throw those deadlines out the window. Couldn’t do that with this one which ultimately helped me finish it.

Editing is the Scariest Part of Writing
For me, at least. There were definitely times when I put off editing, or simply published without a final read-through, because the idea of rereading what I’d written and finding out exactly how much it sucked was not something I wanted to do. When I’m writing, there’s less pressure to make good words, because I know I can fix that in editing. However, when I’m editing, that safety net is gone. Editing is the safety. And yes, I am aware I can edit multiple times, (and I did), but that doesn’t take away the fear, seemingly. Especially when a deadline is looming. I’m going to have to dig into that and find ways to deal with it.

What Now?
I’m going back to focusing on short fiction, at least for the first half of this year. I’m hoping to have an anthology done by mid-year. About half the stories are already written, so on the bright side, there isn’t much left to do. On the not-so-bright side, most of that work will involved editing.
In terms of the blog, I have another series planned, but it’s more along the lines of book analysis rather than my own work. Stay tuned!