The Eclectic Writer is about writing and the things that effect a writer. About my books and those of others.
Monday, July 2, 2012
Monday - July 2 - Behind and Ahead
I will admit that I usually have to persuade myself that the rough draft is fun but this time it really is. I often rough draft a book that in the end will be sixty to eighty thousand worda at about 10 to 20 thousand. Why? Many of the scenes I plan to write end up with just a few words., suck as "They make love." Fight scene goes here." Not happening this time. I'm aiming for a 60 thousand story and am prologue plus two chapters in and have 8 thousand words. Hope this doesn't mean the book will be a real epic adventure. Guess I'll have to wait and see what happens.
Sent off The Micro-manager Murder to the publisher and am waiting to hear. Have a tendency to become a bit impatient but I''ll wait for several weeks before jogging publisher's mind. The one thing I will not do is wait nearly a year to discover nothing was going on. I'm sure that's because this time I chose the wrong house to put the book out. But that's another story.
This week I will continue with the rough draft. Won't finish it until perhaps next week but so far I'm having fun. Called Lines of Fire and is part of a trilogy. If I manage to complete this there will be a 12 book cycle featuring the Guilds of a Guild House. Working on the Defender's Guild and there are problems within and possibly without. Complications are what makes a story and handing problems to the characters drive a story forward.
So how about you? Do rough drafts go smoothly or with ruts in the road? Do you have trouble waiting to hear from a publisher?
I tend to write my zero draft and my first draft at the same time - that is, I tend to reread and edit the previous days work the next day, then pick up and continue the story. Which means it's rough the entire way! Sometimes I wipe out everything I wrote the day before because the story has gone off the rails. Other times I can just keep going and get it a large chunk down. I am definately a bigger fan of editing, which goes so much more smoothly, than drafting!
ReplyDeleteIn some ways I do the same sort of thing except I write my rough drafts by hand and then key them into the computer allowing me to make notes about changes. I also enjoy the editing process and finding what I've forgotten to include. and making things better.
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