I’ve blown through the National Novel Writing Month goal of 50,000 words. I’m at 55,000+, and the story is moving along, but we still haven’t gotten to the main crisis of the book, although I’m starting to set it up. (Add in the 23,000 words for this journal, and it has been a good month, writing-wise.)
It doesn’t look like I’m going to be able to finish the whole novel by this weekend, though. It has been very encouraging to see that I can produce quickly, writing a couple of hours per day. There is still quite a ways to go, and I want to finish strong.
That is, I have been learning a lot about what keeps a story flowing, and I want to keep that up while I write through the climax. I can already see major areas that need rewriting, but I’m going to stick with what I have, until the first draft is finished. I’m also going to leave the first draft as I post it, aside from fixing things like typos and internal logic errors. If this process of journaling the story will have any value at all, people need to see the story exactly as it is being created.
The rewritten (and hopefully much better) version will go up on Amazon, etc. Some people might actually enjoy reading both versions, to see how the story progresses from first draft to publication.
If you are following me when the story gets published, I’ll send you a coupon for a free copy of the eBook, so you can read it on your Kindle or whatever. I’m hoping Wattpad readers can help me get that critical first bump in Amazon reviews, that is essential to getting story recognition.
If there is interest, I will continue this journal all the way to publication and beyond. Let’s all see how it works.
Brian Groover
Frederick, Maryland
Wednesday, 26 November 2014