Yesterday I finished the first draft of DEATHBLOW. Now I'm eager to get to re-writing. I have a nice fat list of things I want to correct, watch for, tighten, revise, improve and add in. The first draft is a little over 67,000 words. When re-writing is finished, I'm guessing it will end up around 70,000.
I started writing on December 13, and gave myself a deadline of July 24, my birthday, to complete the first draft. Twenty days ahead of schedule. I hope finishing early is good.
I'm reminded of an old Shelley Berman routine where he's on a plane flying to the west coast and the pilot announces that they'll be landing 20 minutes early. The comedian says, "That fills me with terror. We could land two hours early if he puts it down in Grand Canyon."
Showing posts with label first draft. Show all posts
Showing posts with label first draft. Show all posts
Monday, July 5, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
Close To Finishing A First Draft
06-28-10
I'm three-and-a-half chapters from finishing my first draft of DEATHBLOW. I'm excited about the writing I am doing now. I'm heading for the climax and my foreshadowing is coming to roost. It seems to me that it's good stuff. No cynical smiles, please; I've finally gotten to the point where I can recognize pure dreck in my writing, and I can recognize pretty good stuff. It's the in-between that still needs work. I wish there was a "Find" function in my software that could ferret out my dread habit of overwriting.
At any rate, I am excited about once finished, going back to the beginning and making sure the novel starts as excitingly as I think it ends.
Oddly enough, the goodly number of near misses I had querying NICE GIRLS DON'T BITE, give me hope for this novel, which is better writing. Thanks for reading. Joan Sween
I'm three-and-a-half chapters from finishing my first draft of DEATHBLOW. I'm excited about the writing I am doing now. I'm heading for the climax and my foreshadowing is coming to roost. It seems to me that it's good stuff. No cynical smiles, please; I've finally gotten to the point where I can recognize pure dreck in my writing, and I can recognize pretty good stuff. It's the in-between that still needs work. I wish there was a "Find" function in my software that could ferret out my dread habit of overwriting.
At any rate, I am excited about once finished, going back to the beginning and making sure the novel starts as excitingly as I think it ends.
Oddly enough, the goodly number of near misses I had querying NICE GIRLS DON'T BITE, give me hope for this novel, which is better writing. Thanks for reading. Joan Sween
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
When To Ask For Comments
I have heard many discussions regarding when to let your work out for comment. Not too soon, people say, because a first draft is, well, a first draft. You don't want to be stuck saying, "Yeah, I know I have to fix that," "Yes, I intend to flesh that out," "Yes, I do intend to clean up the punctuation later," "Yeah, I know I need to look up the right model number for that gun," and things like that. And meanwhile this reader is concluding that I'm a no-talent doofus with a lot of defensive excuses. Nevertheless, I do want someone to point out, "Why was Anthony killed in Chapter 3, but helping with the investigation in Chapter 7?" long before I've done 28 rewrites! I finally settled down to a double standard. It doesn't bother me to let serious writers see my work after just a little rewriting, because I know they know the difference between an early draft and a polished piece. But I probably wouldn't let hobby writers comment on my work until it had 53 rewrites. Thanks for reading. Joan Sween
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)