Out of Order

I'm 27,000 words into my current work in progress -- over a fourth of the way complete with a first draft. One might say this is a minor milestone to be slightly proud of, but I'm skeptical. Instead of jumping up and down and glowing about how many words I have on the page, I know (and it took me two other novels to learn this) that now is a pretty good time to stop and see if I need to do some course correction.

I've done a lot of experimenting with this novel. I'm writing this draft super slow, with these long, leggy sentences. So my word count is not shooting up that high, which makes me nervous. But, I know that this is the best first draft I've ever had.

I'm also writing from multiple points of view. This story revolves around two couples, and I'm telling the story from each of these folks' POV. I did this at first as an experiment, to get to know all my characters better. But then I liked the concept and decided to stick with it. I've had fifty pages in front of my workshop group, and the jury is still out on whether or not this is effective. The most helpful feedback is that I'm not spending a long enough time with each character, and that's been an easy fix. I'm sticking with it for now.

But the thing I'm doing most differently with this WIP is that I'm writing my scenes out of order. I've heard people talk about doing this before and I thought they were out of their minds. But now I get it. I have, for once, an idea of the plot of this story. So I wanted to write out key scenes and see what they felt like. Then I've been going back and filling in the gaps.

Yet now I wonder if this is harmless and I can keep drafting this way, or if it's a lousy idea and I should just knock it off. Does anyone write this way? Have you tried and it found it to be a disaster? Or has it been an effective writing technique for you? I'd love to hear any and all advice!

Second Draft, Sort Of

The first few chapters are safely in the hands of trusted critique partners. So exciting! It took me about a week longer than I expected to get things in shape, but I wasn’t off my goal by far.

By the way, when you change the point of view in a story, do you know how many times you need to look at a chapter before you’ll be able to find every instance of the old POV? Me neither! Third person is still popping up everywhere I look.

I was reading a post by Anna David on Editor Unleashed the other day where she says she doesn’t know how to count her drafts. Being a very goal-oriented, make a list and cross things off it kind of person, I’m very motivated by knowing what draft I’m in. But that post made me reconsider this.

The first draft was clear, I wrote it front to back, no stopping. The second draft has been a much more iterative process. At first, I’ve focused heavily on the first fifty or so pages. Then I focused on the second fifty pages a ton. Then I went back to the first fifty pages to make sure they were set up properly so the stuff in the second fifty made sense. Should I be counting these as different drafts? Does it matter? No, not really.

I’m going to stick with calling it a second draft for now, because I know I’m further along than the first, and nowhere near the final polishing draft. I’m moving forward, and that’s really all that matters.

First Draft: Finished!

You guys, I totally finished the first draft of the novel!

Okay, the deets. Draft one is 88,260 words long. Three hundred fourteen pages. It has an actual, honest to goodness plot. Conflict. Subplots even (that I did not know what I was going to do with and miraculously came together in a fit of Diet Coke early yesterday morning). Rising action, a climax, a resolution. It has a love story (of course, how I love to write about love!). Characterization. It has voice.

Now, it also completely sucks. But that is okay, because it is a first draft. Sure, it has the items listed above but in very rough form. I kept switching the names around of two secondary characters – they are too much alike. I don’t know if third-person point of view works and might have to switch it to first. Another secondary character totally disappears two-thirds through the book. There are way too many adverbs.

These are things I can fix in the rewriting stage. This is where the real work exists, I think. I can be all “yeah, I wrote a novel in three months” bad about myself (at least for a little while, right?). But, how good can a book that only took three months to bake be? Answer: not very. So, I have lots to do.

First, I take a break from it. I can’t decide between two weeks and four weeks, so I think I will settle on three. I need to have a rewriting plan. My first plan of attack will be to print this puppy out and go through it with a red pen, marking plot holes, crossing out adverbs, identifying spots to develop.

When I wrote my first book, I wrote it all linearly. First draft all the way through. Second draft all the way through. Third draft, etc., etc. I really think the back half of my first novel was a lot stronger than the front, because I was a stronger writer the more time I spent with it.

But guess what? Agents don’t request pages 180 to 220. They request the first three chapters, or ten pages, or more often, just the first five pages. So I need to get the beginning in the absolute best shape possible. I’m going to try rewriting differently this time, I just don’t know how yet.

I will think about rewriting plans during my break from this book. I also have to outline what other writing goals I’ll have. I want to rework some existing short stories and send a few more out for publication. So I have to put some goals around that, too.

Wow, so lots more to do! I am tired just thinking about it. So, I am going to get a Big Gulp and a sesame seed bagel from Dunkin Donuts, eat/caffeine myself into a stupor while watching bad morning television and then likely take a nap. Where is Season 2 of Mad Men when you need it?

80,000 Words

I hit a lovely milestone this morning that makes me breathe a humongous sigh of relief. I wrote (without even noticing!) 80,000 words in my first draft so far. Now, I have to admit that some of these words are things like Chapter 27 and this doesn’t make any sense and make sure this is possible. But that is okay and it is close enough for me. I had a bad spell of lousy writing days Friday and Monday in which I wrote less than 1,000 words (a lot less). Yesterday it dawned on me that if I tried for just a little bit I would reach 79,000 words and at one point I was typing while keeping my eye on the word count meter and that was just terrible and I will try to never do that again in my life but I am human so who knows.

I think I may have mentioned before that I keep track of my word count in Excel, harkening to my days of managing things at work and trying to be organized. It is obsessive and not creative, and I understand writing is not about how many words but how good those words are, but gosh I needed something to motivate me each day and turns out my little word count obsession did just the trick.

Anyway, when I first started this book I did some quick formulas to map how close I was to 80,000, 90,000 and 100,000 words. Well, I am at 102% of goal for 80,000 words and have -0.73 days left to hit that goal. So that is somehow (I don’t know what makes me tick, but as long as I’m ticking I don’t really question it) a very big relief and sense of accomplishment. My ultimate goal for the first draft is 90,000 but at this point I am able to let the book wrap up in as many (within reason) or few words as it needs.

I had been worrying the past week about needing to wrap things up and not knowing how to make that happen. When I was reading in bed last night, in the middle of a lovely paragraph, an idea came to me and I thought yes, I can do this. I haven’t really used that idea yet, but having it gave me confidence, like Dumbo’s little feather and well, here we are. Plus I had a Big Gulp this morning and that always really helps.

I am pretty confident I can finish this first draft by mid-next week (famous last words, I know), falling a few days past my March 15 deadline but who the heck cares? After I get the full first draft out of my system I will blog about what it was like. I couldn’t blog about the writing the book while I was writing the book. Weird, I know.

And the nice part is, so far today (about 10 a.m.) I pounded out 2,372 words and I still have more in me - I can feel them.

Two Weeks Left

No, I am not quitting my job. Even though this (writing!) is the best job in the world. Even though I miss talking to people all day. Even though I’m not getting paid. But I am not in it for the money, and having experienced the time in my life when I was in something for the money, let me just tell you being in something for the money pales in comparison to being in it for the love.

Anyhoo, at the beginning of the year, as I was outlining my writing goals, I set a target date to finish my novel by March 15. Well, let me just remind you that March 15 is in less than two weeks. OMG. Seriously.

But, I will make it or get very close to it. If I’m off by a few days, I won’t be upset. At the rate I’m going, Excel tells me I should be just fine. Unless, well, lots of things. Who knows if the climax will really wrap up in as many words as I’ve estimated? Maybe it will all be a mess and I’ll keep writing and writing and end up with 550 pages like my first novel. If that does happen, I will force myself to stop. At least I can say I’ve learned that.

I’ve started having weird feelings knowing my book is wrapping up. I’m all crabby and tired and, last night, perhaps a little sullen. You know how on the second to last day of vacation you (OK, I) might get a little depressed that the vacation is nearly over and suddenly the sun is not bright enough, or it’s too bright and you wish it would just quit already, and the food isn’t that great after all, and you wonder why you even spent all this time and money being on vacation in the first place since tomorrow American Airlines is going to rip your precious vacation right out of your grubby little hands by shooting you in the air at an obnoxious speed?

Yeah, I’m kind of starting to feel like that.

Word Count for the Week

As promised (mostly to myself) here is an update on my word count this week.

Monday I hit 2,488 words total, and all before 2:00. This was great, and a rare treat. I savored it as it happened. First, the words flowed quickly. I think this was because I don’t write on weekends and the words were all stored up in my brain and fled right out of my fingers. Also, I knew I had two social activities on Tuesday that would keep me away from my keyboard for a while and it would probably help if I pushed myself harder while the words were easy.

Tuesday, I hit only 1,847 words. To me, that’s 1,900 (I understand the science of rounding actually makes it 1,800, but I am an optimist, so when it helps to my advantage, I round up). If I am feeling spent, and I’ve just wrapped up, and I’m around 1600 or 1700 words, and it’s late in the afternoon, and I made decent progress the day before, I’ll allow myself to stop for the day. This was one of those days.

It’s noon on Wednesday. I have not written a single word. I have not even opened the document. I have been surfing and reading and moping a bit. I know I will get some words out, but I think this is my problem: my husband is out of town on business, so I don’t feel the urgency to wrap up by 5 or 6:00. I can write until 8:35, I tell myself! Or even 10:35! (After that, I get sleepy.) My normal office working hours of 9 to 5 are a very good thing and logic tells me really should maintain them. But right now, I’m going back to reading a book. I’ll hit the computer later and see what happens.

Later: I’ve eeked out 702 words. That is not so hot, but it’s 702 better than 0.

Later still, but earlier than 8:35 (yay for me!): Hit 1,597. I wrote a tough (i.e. sad and rather emotionally wrenching) scene today. Those words are harder to come by. But there are more words on the page now than when I woke up this morning. I’m calling it a day.

Thursday I hit 2,331 words. Due to a slight alarm clock fiasco, I did not get up and at ‘em as early as usual. Plus, I had plans in the late afternoon, so I had a small window of time to work with. Boy, do I love pressure. It really works its thing on me. Good day. Pushing myself day (aren’t they all that way?).

Friday I hit 1,284 by 10am. Leaving to meet old work friends for lunch. It’s now 5:12 and I hit 2,045. And I really, really pushed myself to hit that 2K mark. I sat down in front of my laptop late in the afternoon wondering what else I could eek out. I had nothing. So I got a Diet Coke and as I was grabbing a handful of popcorn (what does that have to do with Diet Coke?) I had an idea. If I hadn’t forced myself to sit back down and at least contemplate more words, who knows what would have happened.

So, I tallied 10,308 words this week. It was holy moly hard. I did not always want to write so many words each day. I rarely had an idea of where the story would go or what I would say when I sat down in front of the computer. But sit down I did, and then typing happened and then a skeleton of a story was born. And only because I showed up to work each day.

But now, it’s Friday, my work week is over. It’s beer-thirty, so I gotta run.