First draft

Two o'clock in the morning: the old hours of brilliance, giving a last hurrah, perhaps, before I banish them in favor of a 7am wake-up call starting next week.

I finished the first draft of my novel. A VERY rough first draft, about 53000 words (the goal being 75000, give or take.) I've never come up short before, which caused something of a panic several days ago when I realized I was three-quarters the way through my planned material, and only half-way through my expected word count. This resulted in a pep talk from my dear Sam, who advised me to keep writing according to plan, then go back and fill in later. Thank goodness for Sam!

Anyway, so I finished this first draft tonight, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I still feel like it's quite vague, and I'm not sure how other people--particularly the teenage target audience--will respond to it. Of course it's going to be subject to extensive revision and overhaul, but still.

Speaking of revision: have I mentioned how much I love whiteboards? I finally got a big whiteboard last year (although, I saw that Gregory's sister had one about twice as big on her bedroom wall, and I was jealous). You would not believe how much I use this thing, especially during plotting/planning stage. Currently, my whiteboard is covered by revision notes and thoughts for contemplation. I'm also currently debating whether or not to take it to Pennsylvania with me--probably not, but it's still under consideration.

Despite everything, it's a relief to have the first draft done. The outline is there on paper, now I can twist and stretch and erase and rehaul to my satisfaction, which is entirely different from these long writing stretches.

Last year, I wrote 80,000 words in four months. This year, I wrote 50,000 words in three weeks. Granted, I wasn't in school at the time, nor did I have hours of daily rehearsal. Dedicated writing time definitely speeds up the process. Either way, it's pretty slick.

(Sorry for the scattered-ness of this blog: It's 2 in the morning, I'm tired, and I wrote about twelve thousand words just today. So...goodnight!)