The beginning of my first draft is going well.Too well, to be cliche. So far, the only issue I’ve run into is that I haven’t run into any issues, and it’s beginning to make me a bit paranoid. I’m trying to stay positive, though, and that means I need to focus on the fact that for the first time in my life I’ve maintained a steady writing pace for several days. I’m going to have something truly resembling a novel soon.
A lot of that is thanks to the support of my closest friends (and roommates) despite the dubious existence of my ability to stay focused; but a lot of it really is my own hard work, which is special to me because it’s something I haven’t felt since I first began learning guitar, and to sing.
In any case, let’s get on to the state of the novel: It doesn’t have a title. What it does have is a synopsis, a well fleshed-out outline of the full novel, an in-depth outline of the first act, a lore bible I need to do a better job of maintaining, and breakdowns of many of the characters and their roles in the story; as well as nearly fifteen pages. The page count makes it sound like nothing, and to be honest, I can’t believe how small a task that a thousand words have felt like.
I’m not naive–at least not that naive. I’m sure I’ll have my comeuppance in the future. I’m looking forward to my second draft, and I’m only half joking. I can already see I’m getting much better over the course of the last week, let alone by the time I’m finished with this first draft, so I have a feeling I’m going to want to overhaul everything from the ground up. There is also some concern about how much I’m straying from the outline for the time being, but that’s a problem I think my skills are adaptable enough to handle.
I’ve finished chapters three, five, and seven, and begun work on chapter two; and I’m also working on tons of new content for this blog. First is going to be a review of Travis Baldree’s Legends and Lattes. Once I have some content on this blog to speak of, I’ll look into promoting it. If there’s ever an audience, I’ll begin posting excerpts of my fiction as well.
The hardest part so far has been managing my time. Thankfully I’ve got an abundance of that to spare these days, that’s half the reason I took this up in the first place. It’s been a wonderful privilege in a time where I desperately needed it.
–-
And of course, after all that bragging, the burnout hit. I haven’t written in nearly three days and my mental health has been suffering. I want to get back on track though, so I’m vowing as I write this to finish, at least, the 500 words a day I want to put towards the blog, and then post it. Not just for the purpose of generating content, but to keep proving to myself that I can create and finish things (even when they don’t go to plan.) This is as much a journey of self-care as it is an art form, or even a business endeavor.
Let’s describe the premise of my novel (spoiler free): It’s a trans focused LGBTQ+ fantasy novel about a girl who becomes the Knight of the Winter Court in the midst of an identity crisis. With little memory of her past, a body that feels strange in ways she can’t place but isn’t all that bad, either, and a (hopefully) intriguing cast of characters showing the darker sides of personal freedom, romance, and what we owe to each other.
That blurb feels like I’m leaning into the hard sell, but that’s at least the goal of what I’m writing here. A big part of this blog is documenting my attempt at this project for the future, so I can analyze my process and hone in on my craft. Part of that means not taking messy, three day long breaks from my writing. I want to set out an actual timeline for when I might be finished with my first draft to set some goals for myself. Assuming I can maintain something in the area of 1,000 words a day towards the novel at this hiccup, it doesn’t seem like too lofty of a goal to actually finish this.
As for these blog posts, as the title says, I’ll be creating them about once a week for the foreseeable future, on weekends. It seems a sensible enough way to cap each week of writing off.