I’m done, and so not done

So I have called an end to writing my first draft. It’s a smudge under 80k, and I know it is not complete. However, I was adding and changing things that perhaps didn’t need doing. I had added new scenes, then realised that I had modified other scenes in the same way.

It was getting messy, and a little confusing. I also added another plot element, that I really liked, and started working it in, when I found that I had done something else that made it redundant/unlikely.

So, the things I have taken away from this are:

• I can pants a first draft with minimal outlining, but it’s pants
• I can rework what is on the page easier than having a blank page
• I can do 5k days if the mood takes me
• I can also have days where I’m not in the mood, but I can still crank out 1k
• I really like and know my two main protagonists, and they are complex characters
• I need to add depth to the other characters, particularly the antagonists
• I am going to plot and outline a lot more before I start the next novel

So, what’s next I hear you ask (I’m sure at least my mum would ask that.)

I’m not going to look at the first draft until the 1st of December, which is roughly six weeks away. To give me some distance, so that when I re-read it, I am looking at it almost fresh.

In those six weeks, I am developing my next novel outline, which is going to be a lot more detailed than this ones. There will be lots of character, conflict, context, and the like so that the writing can flow, still be interesting, and potentially cause changes through discovery.

I’m thinking that my outline will be like an architect’s drawing of a house, with the novel being the actual house. A few pages in size for the outline, but it shows how to build something people can live in.