I just finished the first draft of a novel. It feels as though I have dug a mile of a deep ditch and I can now look back and see how well I did. Does that plot line run a straight line? Is there sufficient surprise in the plot so an intelligent reader will enjoy it? It always feels as if I have written total drivel, but I know that is my usual reaction and I need to ignore it for now. If I still feel that way after the first re-write there may be a cause.

I need a couple of days away from my manuscript before I go back and write, enjoying the immersion in the words that the first re-write gives me. I will spend twenty minutes looking for the most precise word to describe the colour of the sky: azure, cobalt, cerulean. Different characters would choose different words. One might even call it blue. I’ll wonder why I had never used the word “immense” in my writing. I’ll look up origins of words, for heaven’s sake. Words, lovely words. I’ll start that re-write on Monday.

This slight hiatus in my writing schedule gives me time to check over my files in a relaxed and almost idle manner. Amazing what I found.  I had at some time created a filter that shoved all my twitter responses into a “save” file without appearing in my “new messages” report. Some of those twitter messages, the ones I missed on the twitter site that had disappeared in the long scroll, have been sitting in the “save” file for quite a time. For all those who requested a following, my apologies. I hope I have answered you now. I’d better check and make sure I paid my utility bills. Fierce focus on writing can be detrimental to responsible living.

 

I’ll get out on the water this weekend, and store up energy for next week’s re-write.