Friday, August 29, 2008

OH MY! No! No! No! No!

I started the morning off with 624 new words in the second novel and then set about reading my first draft, so I could begin the rewrite.

WOW!

I thought you guys were my friends. Why didn't anyone tell me the first draft was so horrible?

I know a writer is his or her own worst critic, but man does it stink! Even I wanted to stop reading after the first few paragraphs.

So I started the second draft which, in this case, means I'm saving almost nothing and starting over. I wrote another 791 words toward that end. A little shy of what I wanted for the day, but I may go back and write a little more before going to bed, so I guess that might be up in the air.

I wasn't nearly as tired today as I have been the past few days. Guess I'm over my lack of caffeine lull. Sadly, I spent more butt time in the chair writing than I normally do for so little production. I guess I was thinking quite a bit as well. I suppose that is to be expected when starting a new project. Hopefully, this next attempt won't be so painful to read eh Cullen?

I've been out here close to six months. I am just starting to feel the crunch of a lack of time. Up until the past few days, I was writing as though I had all the time in the world and it came with a little diligence. I have no complaints with my work efforts up to this point. Now, I feel as though I have to insist upon myself to get stuff done and it feels like things are just starting to get difficult.

I'm not talking about the pressure of impending deadlines. It's rare when I get bogged down with deadlines (assuming I don't forget them entirely, which has been known to happen because I get so lax with them). I'm talking about working harder to take things to the next level. I felt I was asking a fair amount from myself before, but now I seem to be asking for a little more.

I guess, as they say, this is show time.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Pathetic attempt to get us to pat you on the back for the first draft. You know it wasn't that bad, so why should we have to tell you again, lol. Of course you are going to be more critical of it than we are. You are the author, possessing a unique perspective on the story as a whole, while we are just your reading public grasping the story for the first time with a shaker of salt due a first draft. I don't think anyone said that it was publishing worthy in the condition that it was in, but certainly it didn't stink and you know it. Get over yourself. ;)

Unknown said...

Yes Pat, get over yourself.

You gave Kim a copy of your book to read but not me. She reads stupid books about how great the monarchies of the world are and every single biography that has ever been written about Princess Dianna and you are giving her a copy of you Science fiction to read?????

Doc Brown said...

First, it really is that bad. I am telling the story, not showing it. It's my job to guide the reader through the story, not spoon it to them like they're victims of severe head trauma. Most of what I wrote is unusable toward a second draft. Thus, making it as bad and as worthless as I claimed.

It all would have been quicker if I had thought about everything less and made it a glorified outline. The dialog, some of it anyway, is pretty much all I can salvage, and since I was nervous about dialog in the beginning, there isn't that much of it in Taveson's story. Hopefully, the writing gets better in Pella's story.

All that being said, it had been some time since my last attempts at creative writing. I can see very clearly that I needed some time and practice to get comfortable with the process again. So it is not exactly time wasted.

Second, Charles, you never asked for a copy. You've known I've been working on this project for more than a year and you complain now? Why can't Kim give you a copy? I'll send you a copy once finished here.

Third, the fact that Kim doesn't read Sci-Fi is exactly why I want her reading it. If I can get her interested in such a story, I'll either being doing something seriously right, or seriously wrong. (Like letting it turn into a biography of a family of intragalactic monarchs that marry their cousins and behead each other for disputes over continents.)

Of course, that assumes Kim will eventially read it...