(For this post, imagine swelling, inspirational music in the background. You can also imagine me in a Napoleon-style outfit, but the music should suffice.)
Okay, troops. We’ve battled first week panic. We’ve just finished second week issues – pacing, plot holes, the works. We’ve had some smooth sailing; some of us have even had moments of pure inspiration (mine is called ‘caffeine’), and have careened towards the 50K limit. Wherever you are, remember: the battle isn’t with each other, it’s with the page.
The third week for me is the hardest – it’s make or break time. If I don’t end the week ahead of projected word count, I know I’ll be panicking, and that’s certainly not the frame of mind I want to be for the final seven days. At the same time, I never want to slap any old prose on the page for the sake of writing. Having spent the past two weeks thinking about these characters every waking moment, worrying about the danger I’m putting them in, and seeing them come to life, anything less than the best seems…disrespectful to them. I imagine it’s the same way for many of you.
We have to remember: this is a first draft. This isn’t being sent to a literary agent on December 1st. This isn’t being judged. This isn’t even seeing the light of day again. It’s just a first draft. So write. Take chances with your characters. Send them on side adventures you hadn’t originally planned on. Throw a spanner in your plot, just to write yourself out of it. Don’t look back.
Of the less than 20,000 words I’ve put on the page, I know that maybe, maybe 6,000 will make the final draft in their current form. I know that characters will change. I know that the timeline of events will be switched around. I know all of these things, yet I’m pushing forward. And I’m pushing forward because while I know there is so much more work to be done, I’m so excited about this story. I’m excited to tell it, even if no one but my son and I ever read it. And I’m excited that we are all on this journey together.
We’re at the halfway point. We can do this. Push hard this week. Challenge yourself to double your daily word goals every day. Keep a jotter notepad and pen on you, and write any time you have a spare moment. Waiting for a website to load? Have your manuscript open on another tab, and get a few lines of dialogue in. Taking a bathroom break at work? Close out Candy Crush and load up a notepad application.
I’ll see you next week for the final seven day stretch, where I’ll be giving tips on how to make your words work for you as we all inch to our 50K goal. But for now…
(Inspirational music reaches climax as I ride off into the sunset on a glittering Pegasus from a 1980’s airbrushed poster, and scream into the cosmos…)
Comments