first drafts

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Michaeline: Wishful Beginnings

 

A muse (Clio) writing in a book.

Write and write and write again. (Image via Wikimedia Commons)

A story has to go through a lot of revisions before it’s the story you want. Way back when I didn’t keep accurate records about such things, I started a novel about a paranormal plumber, and the first two paragraphs went like this:

Mrs. Copra had sounded very worried when she called about her stopped up toilet, and Jennifer knew, as soon as she stepped into the noxious miasma in the foyer, that it was going to be a tough job. She checked her toolbelt, flipped the switch to warm up the cryo-zapper on her back, and felt in her bandolier to make sure the tranquilizer darts were ready and waiting. She could feel the tension, like stage-fright, building up, so she glanced back out the door at the truck to read her slogan. “We don’t save the world, but we make it a happier place.” She looked over at her partner, Tilly, and nodded. “Let’s go make some happy!”

Tilly’s tense face suddenly relaxed into a zen-like calm. “Aaarrrgh,” she growled like a pirate. “Let’s go happy that motherfucker.”

This gave me, the writer, a lot of information about the story that was supposed to come. My heroine was going to be a kick-ass plumber who knew her business and was a total Ghostbuster type. She was going to have a female buddy, and this was going to be a lot of action and some fun. But I didn’t really know what the conflict was going to be, and the first sentence was awful. Still, as beginnings go, it was promising and fun, so I went on to write my first NaNo about my paranormal plumber.

In 2010, Jennifer became Perz, and Tilly became Perz’s sister, Demi, and the new beginning looked something like this: Continue reading →

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Elizabeth: Ready, Set, NaNo!

Image courtesy of National Novel Writing Month

Image courtesy of National Novel Writing Month

November, with NaNoWriMo, is a ready-made time to get some words on the page.  Thousands of other people are writing at the same time, there is a tool to track your progress, and there are dozens of individuals, both on the NaNo site and on their own blogs, who are offering advice and encouragement.  As a plus, it’s getting dark earlier and earlier these days, making curling up with a good story (your own, of course), an appealing choice.

Last year, there were 431,626 official NaNoWriMo participants, and since its inception, there have been over 250 traditionally published NaNoWriMo novels plus an unknown number of non-traditionally published ones.

Last week, once I realized that November was right around the corner, I Continue reading →

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Justine: What My First Drafts Look Like

unhappy skierI’ve been playing around with a contemporary story (inspired by a ski trip to Utah over the holidays) tentatively called The Lesson. I don’t have much to it yet…just two chapters, one of which I hammered out while on the plane flying home. I thought it’d be fun to throw it out there for the world to see, and also to get your comments (critical or otherwise — I can take the heat, so long as you’re polite).

I’m also putting it out in the internet-ether to demonstrate what first drafts can look like…sorta clunky, not-much-making-sense kind of things. There are a few good lines, but as my CPs have pointed out, there’s plenty of stuff that needs work, a few things that are confusing, and some useless stuff.

However, as Nora Roberts once said, Continue reading →

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Nancy: I’ve Said Too Much

A Chatty Muse

The ladies who are in the McDaniel workshop classes this semester have a big assignment coming up. By next Sunday night at midnight, we have to turn in Act 2 of our respective WIPs. For me, the good news is, thanks to NaNoWriMo and the fact that I’ve been working on this project forever and a day, I have a completed Act 2 (I am, in fact, close to writing the end of the story.). The bad news is, when I assembled my Act 2 scenes on Saturday, I discovered that I had run a little long. How long? Well, my goal for the Act was 30,000 words. My actual word count currently stands at over 41,500.

You might ask if the length of the act really matters. The truth is, in the first draft, it usually doesn’t. Continue reading →

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Kat: Purses & Pigs

There’s an old idiom that feels appropriate to me this week: “You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.”  I’m not sure who said it or why, but obviously they weren’t talking about writers. Right now, that’s exactly  what I’m trying to do, and the thing is, I’m pretty sure I’m not alone.

As I write this most of the eight ladies are cranking out words and sentences and scenes (100 pages worth) in order to finish off the last assignment in our first McD workshop class. A rough draft of Act I is due and for most of us, it’s the first major chunk of writing we’ve had to turn in. So for the past week and half I’ve spent every waking moment writing the remaining scenes that will finish out my Act One, and it’s starting to feel like I’m cranking out sausage. And like sausage, what I’m turning out right now is a slapdash mess of everything my fried brain can serve up and then smush together.  I can’t help thinking that most of the ingredients belong in the trashcan–like the stuff that goes into ground pork. Continue reading →