Drafted!
Posted on May 13, 2008 by Daniel
I finished the first draft of my novel today. It arrived ahead of schedule: for the last few days, as the final page has been getting closer, something in me as been demanding more words. I’ve felt a bit battered, actually. Morning sessions have often been followed by an unexpected afternoon session. I finished today at three forty five, and the word count is about 79,000 words.
I think: some parts of the book are already very good. I think after a re-write, it will be readable. I’m going to take a rest, read a series of “how to write” advice books, scour a few more novels, and get planning for draft two.
Very happy; a little weary.
Daniel
Filed under: England
What’s it about? It’s about a teacher trying to found a school in Taiwan, about teaching and learning more generally, sayings like Emerson’s “The ruin or the blank, that we see when we look at nature, is in our own eye”, about different kinds of love, story-telling, and compassion.
I think.
CONGRATULATIONS!!! Since I haven’t gotten through my own first draft yet, I’m ill qualified to advise, but those more in the know seem to all agree that you should relax, put the draft away and not look at it for at least 2-4 weeks. Celebrate!
Cheers, Lisa. I’m trying to do that - on Sunday my family and I are off to France. I’ve got several books on writing technique (blush) and lit criticism, and going to relax, and think about the story as it comes to me.
However, today, slowing my brain down is a little hard.
Congratulations! Wondering when it would be published?
Congrats Daniel. That’s an incredible achievement.
Thanks guys.
Hanjie, my schedule is to spend a couple of weeks thinking and sketching, and then do a second draft in June/July. Then I’ll take it to my MFA course, where, hopefully, I can get advice from professors and work out how to publish it from there.