I’m lost - What do you do when the draft is done?
I am wandering around my house, starting at walls, trying to figure out what to do for the next hour, day, week. Why? I finished the first draft of novel number ten today and now I feel lost. After so many weeks of writing a minimum of 1000 words a day - I have nothing to do. I want to print this glorious manuscript out and rush it into the mail to the person at the top of my agent list, but I won’t. I won’t because this first draft is crap. They all are. They sound fine when I’m writing them; coherent, fast-paced, full of conflict and wonderful characters. But the truth is - it’s crap. So I will leave it alone for at least two weeks, a month will be better, maybe longer. Then I will re-read the manuscript and start the first of what will be many revisions.
So after I finished the last of my 78,000 words this morning, I closed my computer, read a book for a while, walked the dog, read some more and took a nap. I was tempted to turn on the television but…it’s Sunday, do I really want to watch a golf tournament? I’m lost and have nothing to do until I have to start making dinner.
Oh, I know I can write short pieces while I wait for the manuscript to stew in my computer and I will. I have several in mind. But not today. I have other books to write too, but I don’t want to take on another big project until this one is finished. I have notes for book 11 and ideas for two others. No, for now I will try to put this book out of my mind, stop thinking of cleaver lines for the characters to say, quit writing down plot twists at midnight on the pad of paper next to my bed, push the whole thing to the back of my mind. Tomorrow I’ll start a new piece of writing to fill that month while I wait. I have to because after all, I’m a writer and that’s what I do, I write.
Tags: first drafts, mysteries, writing
July 18th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
But doesn’t it feel so good to know that the first draft is done? Such a feeling of accomplishment…until you start the second draft.
Enjoy the break.
Will this book be listed in Amazon to be used on that Kindle player too? I need to save my pennies. Having one of those would be like carrying a library in my purse instead of a paperback or two.
July 19th, 2008 at 8:19 am
Hi Mary,
No this one hasn’t been published - yet. All six of my books on Kindle have been published and the rights reverted back to me, so I decided, why not?
August 11th, 2008 at 11:37 am
The part you just described isn’t the hard part for me. The hard part is going back to the story and I swear that half the time my editing is just meddling and not fixing.
With my short story writing I have to go back over it right away or at least roll it around in my mind looking for the weak spots while it’s still fresh and I remember it all.