I tend to look at the big picture a lot. I actually enjoy taking a step back in any given situation and analyzing the larger strategy or plan at work. The same goes for my writing; the clearest vision in my head for any story is the Big Picture. My issue is that the big picture often distracts me from the little things.
This is actually a running theme with my novel. Last year, I wrote about getting too wrapped up in the overarching themes of my story, and neglecting to nurture the little details.
Now, however, I’m letting myself overthink the post-manuscript process of publication. And let me be clear: I am still writing my second draft. This will be sent to beta readers for final thoughts, I’ll make necessary adjustments, and then I’ll send it to a proofreader to finalize the draft.
Why am I thinking about when to begin my pre-sale campaign when I haven’t even finished writing the thing??
Shrinking the Big Picture
Honestly, my overthinking the publication details I can’t yet tackle stressed me out a bit this week, and distracted me from actually writing.
I let the big picture get too big.
And I think it’s because I’ve been so focused on publication this year. Each little delay I have in finishing the beta pushes that tentative publication date back a bit. I think I’ll be fortunate to be publication-ready in November at this point.
And that’s okay, November is actually perfect. But I don’t want to push it back any more. I’ve promised myself (and all of you) for months that this thing would be finished by the end of 2017. And I want to achieve that, damn it!
Deep Breath… it’s still only April!
I also sent a press release this week, so that took up one night of writing time.
Last night, I was finally able to refocus a bit on my draft after some encouragement from the lovely Jessie. She reminded me to enjoy this part of the process, and she’s totally right. I love rewriting my manuscript, because I truly believe that I have made it better than it was before.
I still only wrote a few thousand words this week, but last night went far better than Monday-Wednesday. My draft sits right around 113,000.
This weekend, my focus will be on immediate problems that I can actually do something about, like figuring out how I’m going to restructure and condense four POV sections spread across three chapters into two POV sections stuffed into one chapter.
Writing Goal through 5/5: 122,000 words
And in the back of my mind I’ll keep reminding myself that every day I don’t write my beta is another day my release date is pushed back.
Do any of you have trouble staying focused as you near the completion of a BIG goal?
Steve D
Evening Satellite Publishing 
I think there’s an ongoing struggle for balance between big picture and the details that make it up.
In writing every scene needs to, on some level, stand alone and function as its own little narrative, but that narrative also has to contain subtle threads and seeds that start and/or resolve outside of the scene, connecting it to the rest of the story.
There is no clearly marked “balance”, because every change within the project simultaneously changes the balance. But it is always good to ask the question.
Also, congratulations. I’m happy to hear that things are going so well.
Thank you! And definitely, it’s impossible to quantify that balance in a story.