The joy (not really) of first drafts
Woah, it’s halfway through November. Time for a NaNoWriMo Lite update. I’m currently 11,000 words into a first draft. Not nearly where I need to be to “win”. But a lot further ahead than I was at the end of October (i.e. nowhere). I figure if I keep going at this rate I can make it to 25,000 words by the end of the month. I think halfway to 50,000 is appropriate for an admittedly half-assed effort, don’t you?
Something I’ve noticed since beginning a new novel is that first drafting gets me into a bit of a trance. A cranky trance. I don’t much feel like doing stuff that’s not writing fiction (including blogging, which is why no post last week). And when I’m writing fiction I get annoyed at how not-awesome it is. Leaving me grumpy, well, most of the time.
With this first draft I’m forcing myself to keep moving forward. No going back to fix scenes that might end up getting cut. I did a lot of that with The Glass Doll. It made cutting stuff that much more painful. Now, the pain is in letting all the sucky stuff stay sucky — for now.
It’s getting better. Now that I have an idea of how much writing I can sanely manage in a week, I’m getting into a routine. Routines are good. They keep me calm. And as more story comes out and the characters begin to come to life I’m having moments of excitement. There are even bits of scenes that I sort of love.
Who knows? Maybe by December I will be my usual bubbly, non-cranky self again.
I write stories, most of which contain a fairy or two. On this blog I write about the things that matter to me. When I'm not making stuff up I also love taking photographs. All the photos here are my own. If you're still curious, find out more on my About page.
11,000 words, that’s great! I’m still struggling with my short story. Routines are wonderful, I’m starting to write a bit more regularly myself, starting to get something vaguely resembling a routine (it feels like a zombie-crawl though, slow and torturous and hampered by missing limbs). Don’t really know where that metaphor came from, but I’ll go with it! :p
Good to hear, Karen. Keep it up, it’ll get easier the longer you stick with it. I think my next blog post will focus on writing routines and keeping motivated.
My jr. high students pcatiripated last November, but I had a WiP that I was already 50K into (and now 87K). Hoping to have the first draft finished this summer so I can participate in my first NaNoWriMo this fall!
These images just make me smile.
Love suemmr and all the adventure it brings and you guys are majorly making the most of it!! Love your bubble shots too by the way.