Changing goals, and quality not quantity

During NaNoWriMo, a lot of us focus on quantity first and first most and not quality, although for some of us, the first can also lead to the second. But sadly, that is not the case with me.

Right now I'm trying to write the second draft of a 91,023 word novel. The first draft was just...*shudders*. Bleh. It had its moments, but overall lots of it was trashed. I tried outlining this before I rewrote it again, but I failed utterly. But now, I'm still floundering about with it.

My goal this month was 60k new words for this draft, but I decided to change it to 25k. For me, focusing on quantity doesn't seem to bring out quality (y'all know this. Some of y'all have read my drafts.), so I need to take things a bit slower and focus on taking things chapter by chapter. Focusing more on progression of plot and making sure everything flows smoothly.

So, yeah, it's hard for a demon-speed fingered NaNoWriMo writer to take things so slowly, but I'm hoping this will have better results in the long run.

In which Kelley realizes something somewhat terrifying and exciting about her novel....

In November, one of my NaNoWriMo projects was a psychological thriller/horror novel titled Prisoners of The Mind. The final word count ended up being 91,023 words. I despised the ending somewhat, but thought I could work it out somehow. Maybe make a sequel for it, or just have to give the ending a little more revision than the rest of the book needed.

Wrong.

I started prepping for revisions earlier this month. Originally I had just planned on making notes in each chapter for what I wanted to change, etc, but eventually I slipped into outlining. An enjoyable process, until I hit Chapter 4 and came to a somewhat awful realization: The rest of the book has to be scrapped.

Okay, maybe not all of it. I could salvage a few scenes from it, but the rest of the story-line from Chapter 4 on changes completely. I have to rewrite it all. This both terrifies and excites me for the obvious reasons. I mean, hey somewhat new story to write with these awesome characters, but.....omg. THINGS. I can't even explain my feelings right now. Just THINGS OMG.

Anyways, I'm starting revisions/rewrites in January with the goal of 1 chapter per day. I'm hoping this will get me half way or most of the way through the book. Then I'll finish up that draft in February and let it simmer while I distract myself with prepping for Camp NaNo.

And now I must go, because ooh Twitter so shinyyyy.

I may have a problem come January. xD