I\u2019m writing the first draft of my latest novel, second in a trilogy. It\u2019s been a while since I wrote the initial draft of the first book. I\u2019d forgotten the annoying little quirks of this stage, things like overusing specific words, dropping a plot thread and having to go back and reinsert it in chapters I\u2019d already \u201cfinished,\u201d having to rewrite a scene that sounded so great and easy to write in my beat sheet but when I actually began penning the words, the logistics felt clunky. At first I was discouraged, until I remembered that this is common for a first draft. I\u2019ve heard of mythical writers who \u201cget it right\u201d the first time through and never need second, third or fourth versions.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not<\/em> one of them.<\/p>\n Right now, the only person who sees\/hears the scenes when I finish is Bobby; he\u2019s my enthusiastic sounding board and doesn\u2019t hesitate to point out errors or problematic elements, for which I\u2019m grateful. He also provides input when I know what I want to happen or what needs to happen, but I can\u2019t figure out the best way to get there. I wouldn\u2019t think of showing it to anyone else yet. It\u2019s not ready. A first draft is like a painter\u2019s preliminary pencil sketch on primed canvas or the metallic skeleton of a nascent construction project. It is the merest beginning of something that will develop with time. The painter adds layers of color, light and shadow to give her image depth and to provoke emotion in the viewer. The builder adds wiring, walls, roof, doors, and turns an open frame into a museum or a school or a home.<\/p>\n It\u2019s worth noting, though, that the end product\u2014so much more than the sum of its parts\u2014relies on that first effort. Without a sound foundation, a house could collapse. Without a sketch, a painting\u2019s composition could fall apart. Without a good first draft, a novel might end up in the digital trash in favor of a traumatic \u201cdo-over.\u201d May the Muses save me from that headache as often as possible.<\/p>\n I think it was Mary Burton who once said in a workshop at the Hampton Roads Writers Conference that she usually gets it right by the seventh draft. I can relate. The first novel in this series went through about that same number before it got to where it is now. I\u2019m a long way from that point in this work, but once I remembered that this is (my) normal first draft process, I became a writing fool. I\u2019ve been ignoring phone calls, forgetting dates, missing appointments. I\u2019m almost at the mid-point of the story, where something significant shifts in the main character\u2019s situation, and I get really excited at the thought of uninterrupted writing time. The characters and the plot points circle in my head most of the day. Bobby makes a point of reminding me each morning to remember to stay in this world<\/em> and in this time<\/em> while I\u2019m driving. (Insert honking horn here.)<\/p>\n So forgive me if I make this a short post. Alira (my main character) is just about to step in it big time, and she needs my full attention.<\/p>\n \u2018Til next week!<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019m writing the first draft of my latest novel, second in a trilogy. It\u2019s been a while since I wrote the initial draft of the first book. I\u2019d forgotten the annoying little quirks of this stage, things like overusing specific words, dropping a plot thread and having to go back and reinsert it in chapters…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-posts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8n0kX-97","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":131,"url":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2017\/03\/09\/where-it-all-went-wrong\/","url_meta":{"origin":565,"position":0},"title":"Where It All Went Wrong","author":"DremaDeoraich","date":"March 9, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"How hard can it be? Remember that? Yeah. (Nostalgic sigh.) I must admit I was overwhelmed at the thought of reducing the 800K-word tome I\u2019d produced to the manageable 120K draft manuscript recommended by an agent. After only a day or two of lingering freak-out, I took the figurative scissors\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/category\/blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1383,"url":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2019\/05\/20\/remember-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":565,"position":1},"title":"Remember Me?","author":"DremaDeoraich","date":"May 20, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019m back! Didja miss me? After four weeks of a flash fiction class where we had homework every week, another week of preparing to teach a class for a friend, and three weeks of non-stop editing\/re-reading\/re-editing, I\u2019ve finally sent off my latest draft to the next round of readers. Now\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/category\/blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/mel-poole-628310-unsplash.jpg?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/mel-poole-628310-unsplash.jpg?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/mel-poole-628310-unsplash.jpg?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/mel-poole-628310-unsplash.jpg?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/mel-poole-628310-unsplash.jpg?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":249,"url":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2017\/07\/17\/the-joy-of-the-new\/","url_meta":{"origin":565,"position":2},"title":"The Joy of the New","author":"DremaDeoraich","date":"July 17, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I just finished a new story, one unlike any other I\u2019ve written thus far. I can\u2019t explain the feeling, the excitement, the sense of teetering between promise and trepidation at hopes of getting it in print. If you write, you know it. If you don\u2019t, no words will suffice. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/category\/blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":220,"url":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2017\/06\/17\/rewrite\/","url_meta":{"origin":565,"position":3},"title":"Rewrite","author":"DremaDeoraich","date":"June 17, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Every writer knows this drill. You put words to paper (or screen), read them over and think, \u201cHey, that\u2019s not half bad. In fact, I am a genius.\u201d Okay, maybe not those exact words. I started my first novel with no clear idea of where I wanted it to go.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/category\/blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1690,"url":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2020\/02\/03\/feeding-the-beast\/","url_meta":{"origin":565,"position":4},"title":"Feeding the Beast","author":"DremaDeoraich","date":"February 3, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"We\u2019re well into 2020 now, and the writing scene is as frenetic as ever. Congratulations to my writing pals from Twitter and Facebook who have had debut novels come out in the last year, or who\u2019ve been picked up for publication sometime in the coming months! All that hard work\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/category\/blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/woodstock-art-568933_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C1002&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/woodstock-art-568933_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C1002&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/woodstock-art-568933_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C1002&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/woodstock-art-568933_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C1002&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/woodstock-art-568933_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C1002&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":837,"url":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2018\/06\/04\/rejection-continued\/","url_meta":{"origin":565,"position":5},"title":"Rejection, Continued","author":"DremaDeoraich","date":"June 4, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I mentioned a few posts ago the rejection of my short story \u201cUpshot\u201d due to its use of Spanish words instead of using a language native to isolated Guatemalans. I went on to describe how I had sent forth queries intended to draw on resources among my friends new and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/category\/blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":566,"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565\/revisions\/566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}