Drafting: 1
Hi everyone,
I’m in the process of drafting my new novel—the one I outlined last month. I’m enjoying it. It’s reassuring to know exactly where I’m going and that what I’m writing is generally relevant (I’m waiting until the end of this process to say this with confidence). Mind you, I’m not following the outline 100%. I never thought I would. In fact, I was worried I wouldn’t be able to follow it at all. I’m pleasantly surprised to find out that I can. Yay, me!!
The novel I’m writing is a dark academia and for some reason, I never plotted my main characters (it’s dual POV), seeing their room or meeting their roommates. It simply never struck me. I was concerned more with the fantasy and romance plot (it’s a romantasy). So I just discovery wrote those scenes. Also, I made a mistake in one of my scenes and wrote it in the wrong POV (not the one in the outline), not sure what happened. I had to rewrite it. The nice thing about that was that it made the scene stronger because now I knew all the thoughts of the other main character even though he wasn’t the POV character. I think that strengthened the scene. You’d think I’d do that for all the scenes because it worked so well, but that’s a little tedious and a little too much work, but it’s a tool I’ll keep in my toolbox when a scene isn’t working or feels flat. It’s something I’ve done in the past for non-POV characters when I felt that they were 2D.
In a previous book, as an exercise I wrote an entire chapter from a secondary character’s POV (she was a tiny side character) and I absolutely fell in love with her and then so did everyone who read the book, even though no chapters were from her POV. Sadly, she didn’t make it into the final draft of the novel (she was combined with another more plot critical character). It was really one of those moments where you have to kill your darlings. It’s sad, but I have her always in the back of my mind, ready to be used in a new story.
Back to this book, I’m at the 25% mark going into November. I’m happy with that. It means that I don’t have to rush to get it done before the end of the year. My aim is one long scene/two short scenes or a chapter per day.
My romance course is going well. I love the instructor and all my fellow students. It’s fun!
Do I have any lessons to impart after drafting for a little bit? I suppose my biggest advice is similar to a previous dairy entry.
Be okay with writing bad words, with writing a bad scene, so it doesn’t stop you from getting to the next sentence, the next scene. Be okay with thinking of bad names for characters—mine are the worst, but easy to spell. I’ll change them in revisions. Even though I have planned the novel, writing some parts are easier said than done, but I can’t edit a blank page, so I write my bad prose, bad descriptions or bad idea regardless, knowing I can change it later.
That’s it for this month. Keep writing, bad word by bad word, and trust the process that in revision everything can shine.
Happy writing,
Joanne.
