First Drafts Will Be Bad

I had no intention of posting today. I got a post up yesterday, which was an accomplishment in and of itself given that the draft had been hanging around for an entire weekend. Today was going to be about actually writing, not writing about writing. But then I hit a revelation. First drafts are always bad.

Let me explain...

I've started to share bits and pieces of Guardians with various friends and I always add the disclaimer: "unedited first draft" (much like my blog posts). In some ways, I've been ashamed of my draft instead of being proud of the hard work it represents. Because let's face it, a lot has been cut and in my head I know that the second draft is going to look a lot different and be a lot better.

So as I was starting to write today I realized how much better I understand my characters now, how much more interesting the plot is going to be, and overall how I've become a stronger writer. Then I understood that years from now as I'm hopefully cranking out a first draft for yet another novel (pretty please universe, let it be so) that that first draft will be bad the same way that the first draft of Guardians is bad. No, it's not a bad piece of writing it just can and will be better. Just like I'm not a bad writer I just can and will be better.

So here's to this first draft with many more (hopefully) to come.

Clearing the Haze

I feel like I've been walking in a haze for a while. I've been working, interning, salvaging my social life, and reading- a lot of reading. From getting free books courtesy of my internship to rediscovering the joys of having a library card, the amount of books I've consumed has been insane. While I've loved every minute of it, writing has been put on standby. Not intentionally this time, though I do like to take breaks now and then. It's just been more fun to read other people's words than to worry about my own. 

Now I feel like I'm coming to the end of a marathon. When I began editing in April 2012 (almost a year and a half ago) I had no idea what I was doing or how to go about making changes. Now I'm still not sure I have a handle on things (it might have broken-->excuse the bad pun) but I'm standing on firmer ground now than I was at the beginning. The final push will be writing all my new pieces, stitching them together to form the whole draft, and the starting the editing process all over again. 

For now though, I'm just going to keep writing, like the excerpt posted below. It's about the differences in time between our world and the world I've been creating in Guardians.

Time is only slightly real. The sun does set and rise, there is night and day, dark and light. Past that, time is constructed. You humans count sixty seconds, sixty minutes, twenty-four hours, three hundred and sixty-five days, and countless years. We count too, but slower. Magic makes it easier to slow down. We have no need for technology after all, no need to always hurry. Occasionally we do move quickly but it is because we want to not because we have to. When you go back to your world you will hurry again. But everyone else is still hurrying and it will be like you have never left.