So ... um ... What happens now?

I've got a long rambling wreck that's all full of promise. Now what? and then waht?

Now the FUN part! Get out your red pencil and edit the heck out of it.

I concur with TKofG. Beat that bad boy into submission, and then decide where you want to go from there. You can bask in your accomplishment, because you've written more words this month than most people write in a year, or you can unleash your creation on an unsuspecting world by either self-pub or traditional publishing. Your choice.

If you are thinking of editing, revising, editing, and more revising, and then finding a publisher.. there are many here who can give you solid advice on that process.

OR... (warning, there are many who consider this to be highly blasphemous)... walk around with a silly grin on your face for a couple of weeks, put your MS in a folder, and.... that's it. Next year, you do another.


Au chacun son gout

For me the next step is to re-write. What I have right now is a royal mess so it needs a lot of work. In fact, I'm going to put this one aside to get the cramps out of my mind and go back to an older piece that needs polishing (well, grinding and patching and rebuilding and polishing, actually).

The big thing as I see it is to keep writing, but that's just what I want to do. As dancingfool said, you can put this one in a drawer and start a new one next year. It's been done before - or so I've heard.

Yes, keep on writing and start editing. And drop in occasionally to the geezer forum. Some of us are year 'rounders and there are dsome good discussions. I've also made good use of the reference and polling forums during the off season.

I guess editing is the answer for me right now. I don't want to leave it unfinished. I'm searching the manuscript for notes that I've left to myself and expounding on those areas. Sometimes I have a small plot idea that I want to include but it doesn't seem to belong anywhere in the current story. And each minor character I touch now seemes to want a larger part in the story -- wants to say what things look like from their POV.

How many characters is too many? I've read books where there are a lot of characters, and even though they all have a different name I quickly lost track of who is who. I did nto have the same problem when I read rowling's Potter books. Rowling introduced a lot fo characters, even in her somewhat short 77,000-word first book, but I didn't struggle to keep up with who is who.

Any suggestions as to how to help the readers see these many characters as distinct?

How important is it for the story to include all of the elements of "The Hero's Journey?" Can some elements be left out? I didn't write the story with it in mind to mold it to fit a certian form.

How I can tell if there is or isn't enough conflict? What do I do if there isn't enough conflict?

Lois McMaster Bujold talks about getting conflict in her stories as this: Think of the worst thing that could happen to your hero right now. Do that.

She's mean to her characters. And they rise to the occasion.

... and to expand on some of what Kazbert said...

I know that characters need to have a different 'voice'.. so that you can tell who is talking, without the dreaded 'Suzie said'. Rowling certainly does that.. seems like she can go for pages, without ever specifically identifying the speaker... but I'm having a lot of problem with this.

As I said,this is just an expansion of Kazbert's question of how to make characters appear distinct.

I found myself constantly writing, "Dan said; Colleen said; Annabel said; Julio said." It drove me nuts. Although I've read that you're not supposed to get fancy, I found myself writing things like "Chip expounded; Jayce responded angrily; Elizabeth whined; Dan told them this." It was just to keep myself from going nuts with all the "he said, she said."

It isn't really necessary to include "X said" at all. Instead of speech tags, use physical motion or a character's emotion. This is an example from the excerpt I had up (not that I'm so great, but it was easy to come by):

He gently elbowed me in the ribs. “The BGE hasn’t shown up yet?”
I chuckled. “The BGE is mythical at this point, Scotty.”
“Maybe if you weren’t so cryptic about it.” He held his freckled hands out in front, like a camera man framing a shot.

Use the speech tags judiciously, to emphasize the dialog - like whine, snapped, snarky tones.

Okay, I pulled Cordelia's Honor (Lois McMaster Bujold's book, in case someone isn't familiar with it) from the shelf (bottom of page 562 in my paperback and one of my favorite scenes):

"A morbid lunacy overtook her. She smiled fiercely at him, and held up the bag. "Shopping." .... "Want to see what I bought?" Cordelia continued, still floating."

How do you smile fiercely? Is a fierce smile a snarl?

I'm not very good at forcing a smile, but I've stood in front of a mirror and just cannot do a fierce smile.

LOL
Trying snarling with your lips turned up... showing your fangs?
Or do things with your nose and top lip?
I don't know really, I sometimes think it is all in the eyes, you know when they flash angrily or give a hard stare.

Do the forums stay open all year round then?

Unicawn, yes, the forums are here all year. They will be wiped clean sometime in September in preparation for the next NaNo.

For the smiling fiercely, think of an angry, exhausted soldier returning from a successful mission facing down someone who thinks said soldier is a bit incompetent. Soldier (here, Cordelia) knows that what's in the bag is gonna be a shocker. That might help. I didn't want to put up so much of the scene that it became a spoiler.

Maybe this is one of those looks that can't be pulled off unless you're really feeling the emotion behind it?

Whats a beta reader? I too will be researching editing writing and would love to keep hearing others' adventures...

I googled it, because I have a sense of what a beta reader is but wasn't sure I was right.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_reader

I guess everything has a wiki page! It's someone who reads your work and helps catch grammar, spelling, and other issues along with pointing out plot holes and such like.

A beta reader is kind of a test reader. Someone who reads and reviews a work before editors or agents see it.