Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Deep Thoughts on Fast-Drafting

MENTAL STATUS: "Happy." Still running--er, walking/running, made ANOTHER new delicious meal yesterday, and have been making some great progress on my Fast Draft story.

FAST DRAFT PROGRESS: 7 pages yesterday. (Hmmm, I think I did better when I was ill.)

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Well, despite the fact that I haven't made my ten page writing goal in days, I have been making a serious dent in this new story of mine. As I mentioned, I'm a sloooooooooow writer. I usually write a few words, think and check my outline, rearrange the wording, write a little more, then go back and tinker some more. (Yeah, I know, I drive myself crazy too.) This FD concept of "writing and not looking back" is completely foreign to me.

But I'm liking it. :)

I think I'm slowing down because I needed to outline a little more before I started. I basically heard about this challenge and decided to just jump in feet first without really giving the story much thought beyond a Goal-Motivation-Conflict for the hero and heroine.

Oh well. Live and learn.

So today, I will actually think about this story and try to jot down what kind of scenes need to be written--maybe make a loose outline that I can refer to. This Fast Draft challenge ends May 14 and I really want to have a good chunk of it written by then.

6 comments:

Chicki Brown said...

Doing a challenge like that can show you new things about your writing. When you're done you will have made a good dent in your manuscript, but you will also have discovered something new about yourself.

Keep on pushing!

Chelle Sandell said...

You go girl!! I've heard so many authors comment that the first draft is the hardest part...you're putting a major dent in your word count!

lainey bancroft said...

Go, Jen, Go!

And yes, promo-junkie that I am, I followed you over to Sensual.

Not stalkin' ya. I swear! =)

Hmm, my comment didn't show up. Is there a time delay thingy?

Anonymous said...

I'm usually the kind that would rather do the write without looking back thing, but I've got to have a pretty clear vision of where I'm heading. Otherwise, I just wind up writing mucky junk that has to be scrapped later on. Wish I could get into the outline habit. It would probably save me a lot of time in the long run.
Sounds you're like doing fine with the challenge. Just keep writing!

PatriciaW said...

Needing to slow down is exactly the problem I ran into last summer. I fast drafted my way through an entire novel. Then I sat down to revise and said, "What am I supposed to do with this?"

So I've slowed down to spend more time on GMC and outlining. Of course, there's such a thing as tooooo.

Trying to find balance.

AliceAnderson said...

Thanks for spreading the word about Sensual! Check back soon, we have four new interviews for you to read. Authors to meet. Books to read. All that jazz. Good luck with your 10 page goal!