Sooo....
I'm committing to this: rough drafting a new novel in ninety days. Why? Because life is short, and I spent three years on the last one, most of which ended getting dumped in following drafts. I'm attempting to save myself the heartache this time, and just git 'er done.
The Project
- WORKING TITLE: The Confluence
- WORD COUNT: No more than 95,000 words in final draft
- GENRE: Cozy Romantasy/Mystery Smashup
Word Count & Lies I Tell Myself
| Current Count | Goal Count to Date | Book Goal |
| 15,246 | 30,000 | 95K |
Ok, once again I am way off from expected. In my defense I was a wee bit distracted by a 2 week stint in San Francisco. (And, btw, what a wonderful city! I had never been. Mass transit that works. Parks. Beaches. Bookstores. Museums. Driverless taxis! Also, ravens. I made friends with ravens right off the bat, and visited with them frequently.)
So...the project languished a bit, but I'm picking up the plow again.
Part of the issues with word count is that I had mistakenly given myself the assignment of writing 90K words in the rough draft for a 90K book. This had me labouring to write fully-fleshed scenes with pristine prose, sparkling clever dialogue, and have all the characters and settings cast in concrete. That was, I decided, wrong.
So now I am writing what I've heard called a "zero draft:" bullet point lists, notes in brackets, bits of prose as they suggest themselves, etc. But I am releasing the need to write anything that will make sense to anyone other than myself in the future. The main goal is that I, as the writer, learn what happens, to whom it happens, where it happens, and why any of it matters to a potential reader. I do not need a traditional rough draft to achieve that. I can do that with bullet points, dialog snippets, character sheets, lists of sensory information in each location, ideas on theme. Maybe only 40K to finish this draft, then time to pull it all apart and restructure.
Creativity Scale
Today: 6/10. Definitely more of a work ethic kicking in here, rather than divine inspiration from the muses. Janna, brilliant wife, has agreed to act as brainstorming partner on this project, which has been great fun. So while gardening or riding bikes or taking walks, we are brainstorming the bullet points of each scene. That has been absolutely thrilling for me. So much easier to write with a partner.
Mental Health Check-In
You know? Pretty good. I'm currently waiting to hear back whether The Cuttlefish will make the cut for The Novelry's agent introductions, so trying hard not to obsess about that. Also, this new project has given me something fun to focus my energy on, and that's been a great boon.
Plot Holes: at least 97
Panic Attacks: 0.
Hello? Is there Anybody Out There?
Since dumping Facebook (no regrets, on the balance) I don't get a lot of visits to the blog. I do miss interacting with old and new friends. If you're here, and you are also writing, tell me a bit about your project! It's an odd and lonely endeavor, so share when you can.
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