What I will have achieved by the end of today (hopefully!) is a completed first draft, the entire dramatic arc of the story.
The No Plot? No Problem! Writing Kit that I've been following says this:
The big difference between this kit and other how-to books on writing is that I don't believe in ghouls or missteps. I also don't believe in great first drafts. What I believe in -- and this is an idea shared by Anne Lamott, Stephen King, and other professional novelists -- is the importance of completed first drafts. Making the journey from "Once upon a time" to "they lived happily ever after" (or "and the monsters devoured all of them," as the case may be) is one of the most fun and juicy adventures you'll ever undertake.
To make the most of that adventure, I'm going to ask you to write in a way that may feel a little uncomfortable at first. I want you to forget about revisions. You'll be turning off the spell-checker and abandoning the quest for pretty sentences.
It may sound like a remedial approach to writing, but in fact it's practical and results-oriented. Because revising and rewriting each paragraph of a novel until it's ready for a bookstore shelf is a sure-fire way to collect an incomplete collection of exquisite paragraphs.
So, to all those kindly people who have said they are eager to read my novel, please note that, at this stage, all you'll be reading is a rough draft of a completed novel.
For example, the first 12,963 words of my book are in the First Person narrative before I then switch for the rest of the novel over to Third Person. This is just one example of how my novel will need to change and adjust once I embark on the editing process.
Of course a big reason for my writing this blog post is ego-protection. I'm only human! But hopefully it's a bit more subtle than my pre-epiphany post, Just so we're all clear -- which is truly cringe-worthy.
And, at least with a bit of ego-protection, I'm then able to happily share my (hopefully, by the end of today!) completed rough draft with anyone who is interested. This will be in the spirit of Growth -- so if you have any helpful suggestions for improvements, if you can point out any areas where something doesn't make sense, if you notice any inconsistencies, etc. then this would be really helpful for me as I work on editing and improving my book.
You may prefer to hold off and wait for the final version (although there are no guarantees as to when this will be ready!).
But before I get ahead of myself, I'd better get back to writing. I haven't hit the 50,000 word jackpot quite yet...!
Are we there yet? :-P
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