That Sh***y First Draft

Patty here...

I have around 47,000 words written in the first draft of a new novel that I’ve been working on since dinosaurs roamed the earth. So, why the foot-dragging? Those of you who followed our Naked blog back in the day may remember that I used to blog a lot about my mother. She was my biggest fan and a constant source of entertainment for me.

The two of us on a book tour in rainy Seattle

My mother died in August 2010. Shortly afterward, I put the manuscript in a drawer where it moldered for a very long time. Just so we’re clear, I’m not using my mother’s death as an excuse for abandoning the book, and I don’t feel guilty for my self-imposed writing hiatus, either. Lots of people are quitters and very little harm comes to them because of it.

Recently, I took the manuscript out of the drawer and started working on it again. Forty-seven thousand words aren’t enough words to please most publishers. There are scenes missing, but I know what they are, where they go, and why they are important to the story. The good thing about a sh***y first draft is that nobody expects it to be brilliant. It’s merely a first attempt to commit the story to paper. What I call “texture” (setting and character details) can be layered into subsequent drafts.

Since I’m so close to the end, one would think I’d be eager to finish. Right? Not so much. Lately, I’ve been thinking about why I don’t just get on with it. For one thing, the book is a departure from my previous four novels. This one is written in third person, not in first and it’s darker in tone. For those reasons, it’s almost as though I’m writing a first novel. Are these the thoughts of a great thinker or an inveterate slacker? Hard to say.

I’ve also been reading a lot lately. Sometimes when I finish a brilliant novel with breathtaking prose I wondered why I ever bothered to type Chapter One. Why try to compete with that sort of perfection? We’ve all been awestruck by a first novel written by an unknown author that lands on top of every best-seller and awards list. Congratulations, but I’m betting that book wasn’t the first draft, maybe not even the tenth draft. Somewhere in the author’s bottom desk drawer is a sh***y first draft.  Just like mine.

Self-editing is the easiest part of the writing process for me. Creating is torture. I force myself to ignore dangling participles and forgive bad metaphors, knowing I can fix all that later. My job is to tell a compelling story one word at a time. If I’m in the middle of a scene and I can’t think of anything entralling, I write [car chase here] or [two knuckle-draggers with guns storm the restaurant]. Then I move on.

Or sometimes I just take a nap.

Or check the refrigerator for leftovers.

I hate deadlines but I’m better at getting things done when I have one. My current goal is to type THE END by June 1. Anybody else out there with a partially finished sh***y first draft that’s collecting dust in a drawer? Are you up to the challenge? Remember, nobody but you will ever read this version. We can do it. I know we can. All we have to do is pay attention and keep putting words on the page. One. Word. At. A. Time.

And when we're done, it's going to feel so good.

Happy Monday and Write on!