A break in the writing.

[rflong]

1 draft down. Who knows how many more to go.  I finished the last scene of To Regain Heaven last night (in first draft longhand, lying in bed and trying not to fall asleep. No wait, that makes it sound boring and it isn't boring. But it was exhausting!)

So the creature stands at just under 50k words which isn't bad as a first draft for me. I do tend to run to the school of "just write something down and come back to it later if you're stuck".  This can lead to some very short scenes and copious notes in the margins saying things like "Change Finbar and Úna to Fionuala and Aidan", and "A happens, then B, then C" or even "Go back and make sure his car is outside the house and not abandoned three miles down the road or the quick getaway will involve a long walk". (Ok, it actually says something like "RETRO: Car should be here." but that probably doesn't make a lot of sense without context.) This also falls into the school of "how do I get them out of here? RUN!" which I mentioned in an earlier post.

Quick writing. LOADS of editing.

I got horribly stuck on the final scene sad to say. It was kind of an anticlimax to reach it. So, he doesn't go away afterall but she thinks he has and is very said. But THEN he walks into the room. HEA! It's a bit lame. I mentioned this to wonderful husband, trying not to give away plot points as he is going to have to read this. I will make him! :D And he came up with a lovely, magical way to have him arrive, which I am using and I am very happy with. All right, they still talk far too much, but that's nothing judicious use of a delete key can't handle.

So now I will have to (a) type this up as Draft 2 and then see how long it is, followed by the editing, layering etc and (b) start to seriously look at Moy Tura Echoes again. I've been trying to block out some of the scenes for that. I think next is another Maeve one, which should please some of the NB critique group.

The sad news is my other critique group seems to be crumbling around us. There are only three of us at the moment. My concern is that if we do start to take breaks we will not get up and running again. The last time it took about a year. Very frustrating! 

Anyway, I think I have earned a little bit of a break in my writing (although I will probably type tonight, while watching tv though, which doesn't really count as creative). Writing To Regain Heaven so quickly (for me - a first draft in about seven and a half weeks is VERY quickly) has left me a bit washed out. It is far from perfect (VERY VERY far) but I am quite proud of it. I have not really planned a novel in this manner before - writing a paragraph for each chapter and allowing it to flow from there. But the method certainly seems to have worked in terms of just getting the words out and down on paper. I will try again shortly I am sure. I already have some ideas.

However, priorities are as follows:
Draft 2
Moy Tura Echoes

And then some other stories I have hanging around that need to get edited - The Wolf's Sister, for example!

It's too easy to get carried away and end up not finishing anything. Far too easy.

R

Comments

[aliettedb.livejournal.com]

So your draft 2 is going to be much, much longer than your draft 1? Interesting...My drafts gain about 10-20% of additional wordage between first and second.

(but then I saw that you were leaving lots of placeholders, if I read correctly? Fleshing these out would do wonders for your wordcount...)

[rflong.livejournal.com]

Yes, there are some placeholders. There are also scenes which simply don't work or are too brief as they stand and I will have to completely rewrite. The level of detail in the draft is sparse, at best and I like settings to come alive when reading. The magical system has one or two bumps that need hammering into place too. Nothing major, but enough that it will change the overall shape and size I think. I have a number of notes for things that I will have to retrospectively fit in so that there is a foundation for them when they occur. And all the other niggly things, descriptions of people that don't involve eye and hair colour and a fashion show description of their clothing for one thing!

I'm aiming for apporx. 30-40% more on draft 2. Fingers crossed anyway. :D Then I'll probably be cutting again. Its never ending.

[clhollandwriter]

I wrote "Yay for" and then forgot what I was yaying.

Yes, yay for completing a first draft, that was it. It's more than I've ever managed! (Hopefully to be rectified by midnight on November 30th.)