First Draft, What To Expect at 20,000 Words

A quick update on Camp Nanowrimo, I'm over 20,000 words. :) Yay! Most of them are crap. 

However, I would not have gotten this far in without outlining my novel. I'm in love with the way I set up this novel almost more than the novel itself.

How I Outlined My Novel And Why I Love It

What do I mean by most of my words in my first draft being crap?

Sometimes the words are just exposition, setting up the scene in a very blazé way that even bores me, but they get me started. (Unnecessary backstory) It's not that they aren't important, because they are. It's that they do not move the story forward in an engaging way. I write them out. I call it word vomit.

Then suddenly, I'm in the scene, I'm creating dialogue, my characters are alive and the story moves along quickly. The next thing I know, I have a 1,000 words for the day.

You got it, Terry Pratchett with a third 'T', not Prachett as this meme screws up his name!! The first draft is the place for meeting your characters, them changing the outline and plot in ways you hadn't thought of, and lots of word vomit as you tell yourself the story. The rewriting and editing phases are when you cut out the backstory and keep it hidden from readers until that crucial moment. It's where you take the parts of your characters personalities you learned by the end and put them into the beginning where they felt flat.

I can't wait to get there. At 20,000 words, my characters are beginning to fight for their goals, to care, to meet each other, and to interact. Things should escalate quickly. This will be good.

Getting here was a struggle some days, but from here, the story will tell itself.


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