...or editing really. And taking care of family stuff and reading. Yes, hence the lack of new posts recently.
The novel is closing in on 65,000 words now. I added a new chapter which I now realize was sorely needed. And I know there are enough gaps in there and things that need to be smoothed out to bring it close to 70,000 words.
Once this final first draft (Not the second draft. I am weird that way!)is done I will get it critiqued, and then will do the second draft. Perhaps a third, perhaps not. Then I will start querying agents.
I don't call this initial futzing a second draft because it is still part of the first process to me....the creation of the story, the tension, the unraveling, all of the elements. The second draft is when I can actually move things around, add additional detail, change things more drastically, but not add as much as I do to create a final first draft.
Ok, so it sounds like I am splitting hairs or am just plain crazy. Perhaps I am both. Is this why we write.
I hope to get the final first draft done by the end of this week. Onward!
2 comments:
I'm getting shivers. Good for you, though you are a bit of a 'what defines a first draft' nutter. You're at least on Draft 2 already over here in Mighty Mom country! Keep up the hard work. I'll be checking in on you.
With the novel I'm working on, there are no cut and dry Draft 1 Draft 2 etc. It all just keeps evolving. First one part changes, then another. Then I get more critiques and more changes. I've printed it out three times in entirety, and I would have called those drafts before, but now I know it's a more circular process, without a clearly defined beginning and end.
Post a Comment