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34,585 / 38,000
(91.0%) |
Seriously considering bringing this WIP down hard in the next couple days. As in crash-landing it. Plotwise, I’m still flying above the clouds where I need more room/time to let the story come to a conclusion. But because I really want to finish a draft by the end of JoNoWriMo+1.5, I’m tempted to forget the fleshy details and write in a more skeletal fashion than I have up to this point; aim the nose for the ground and roar back to earth. If I do that, though, I’ll have more debris to deal with next draft.
Anyone else ever finish a first draft this way?
Tracy Abell 
If I know the details, I write them. My first drafts are messy enough as it is!
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First drafts are messy, aren’t they? I glanced back in my pages to find some detail I couldn’t remember (eye color or something) and started reading stuff I hadn’t remembered writing. I had the sudden feeling that this draft is going to read like a car veering off the road and then veering back to the other side when the driver over-corrects. Fasten those seatbelts!
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Exactly. Some of my characters even change names mid-story.
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Now THAT would be confusing. Do you go back and change everything or just leave it until the next draft?
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I’m leaving it for now. I couldn’t settle on a last name for the love interest. One minor character has the name of a kid from my high school days. Definitely need to go back and doctor that.
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Oh, I don’t know lots of names and use BLANK. That way I can do a word search for BLANK and fill in as I figure it out. I must say, though, this ms has more BLANKs than any other first draft.
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I do that, too. I have a very holey (not to be confused with holy) first draft this time, and I can’t use the NANO-whatchamacallit as an excuse. I’ve been working on it for months. Maybe so I have lots to look forward to in the next round…?
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I don’t know, maybe you should stick with “holy first draft” and see what happens? 😉 Your description matches the first draft I finished this summer. I’m a little nervous about looking at that one again.
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As long as you have words on paper, you have something to work with. However, my only concern as a writer with jamming out the last bits of story is that I’d lose the ability to make changes organically. I’d be so stuck to what I’ve written/want to write that I wouldn’t let the story go in its own direction if it needed to. If that’s not the type of writer you are, then go for it!
Or, I could just give you my 4,000 words and you’ll be done. ; )
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It is a balancing act, staying true to the story but getting the words on paper. I didn’t write anything new today but spent the time figuring where exactly this story is going, and now I think I can end it earlier than I’d thought. So I guess I won’t have to crash-land after all.
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Oh yes, I also meant to thank you for kindly offering to share your 4K words! 🙂
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