MarieHow I Wrote the first draft of my novel
By Jessica Marie As the title may suggest, I have finished the first draft of my novel! January 25th, 2022 is when I wrote the last words of the first draft. April 1st, 2021 is when I started writing the first words of the novel. The title is, The Shadows of Dawn and it is a science-fiction and fantasy novel about; Magic goes through 2,000-year cycles on Esnevaria. When magic returns it plunges the planet into chaos, war, and political upheaval. That is my rough snippet. I am working on a further developed synopsis and some character break downs. But that is what I have for now. Now, I know a first draft is only one step in a long process that progresses from concept to published book. But it is an accomplishment and I am allowing myself to celebrate that win. One step down with a million to go. I am currently sitting down to really flesh out issues and details that I know are missing from the story and what I might do to remedy those. Deeper character development, POV’s, plot holes, etc. These are issues I know exist and that’s just based on what I remember. Before I dive into re-reading and adding more description and further flesh to the bones I have laid out, I wanted to help you get to this achievement too. How did I get my first draft done and how can you get your first draft done too? First, I’ll tell you how I did it and then give you some ideas to try. What I Did Find My Time I found I had the most creativity and drive to write in the morning. Not 5am, simply after my morning routine but before I started any other work for the day. I found that if I tried to write after I had worked for the day I was too tired to muster the energy required to put words on the page. Writing isn’t easy. I love this story and my characters, but it is a draining process. It takes a lot of repetition and effort to figure out what is happening and what needs to happen in the story to keep it moving forward. I need to see progress I need to be able to see my progress. Seeing the word or page count go up in the bottom left corner of my word document doesn’t motivate me very much. I prefer to be able to see it all laid out for me. I found a google excel sheet someone made that tracks your writing progress. I can write down my energy levels, my time spent writing, my word count, and more into this sheet. Being able to see how many words I wrote that day really motivated me. I also found putting a sticker on my calendar also helped motivate me. I could see exactly when I did and didn’t write, and I had the satisfaction of giving myself that sticker. Gave myself grace I gave myself grace to work at my own pace. I did not write every day. On average, I actually only write three days a week. I also generally only write for one hour a day. There are some weeks I wrote more than three days, and there were days I wrote more than one hour. But nine times out of ten I write three days a week and only one hour each session. That’s it. And I still wrote over 96 thousand words in less than one year. No Comparisons I didn’t compare myself to other authors or writers. Some people say you must write every day. Some people write in sprints, for 20-30 minutes at a time and they do that several times a day. I looked at those people, cheered them on, and continued doing what worked for me. I knew I couldn’t write more than once a day or for (generally) more than one hour. It just doesn’t work for me. So, I don’t even try. I don’t let any comparison or competition get to me. I let them do them and I do me and I carried on. And while they may get to their goal faster or slower than me, I didn’t care. I had my goal, to write the first draft within a year, and I beat that goal. I am happy! I worked at my own pace and still got here. I found encouragement where I could I let more experienced writers and authors encourage me. Not literally. I didn’t seek or have any experienced writers or authors telling me good job or to keep writing. But I did look at the things they said or did and let them guide or inspire me. For example, if they said they struggled with something I would take that into consideration and remember that when I got to that point and give myself grace if I too struggled. Or I would read their inspirational quotes and not let my inner critic get me down. For example, there were times I thought about how messy and absolutely terrible this first draft is. It is truly a dumpster fire at this moment in time. That is true for many, many writers and authors. So, I knew I was in the club, the boat, the same situation as many others. But they also said things like, this is the worst the book will ever be. It will only get better from here. My first draft is bad too. You will be so proud of holding that book in your hand one day. These words encouraged me. I wasn’t alone. I am only one step down. I can’t compare my first step with someone’s 500th step. So, I took those inspirational quotes, hung them (literally) on my wall and let them encourage me on days my inner critic was being extra mean. Just kept writing I just kept doing it. Despite all the inner criticisms, despite one month I didn’t write a single word, despite being unsure if I was actually going to be a good writer, despite all this and more. I still kept writing. At my own pace, in my own time, in my own way. I kept doing it. Putting one word in front of the other until I had sentences, paragraphs, chapters and now an entire first draft. Ideas for you When Try different times of day and see how you feel, see what days or times work best for you. Maybe everyday in sprints is your jam. Maybe once a week for 10 hours is your jam. There is no wrong answer. There is no one way to be a writer. Find what works for you and do that. Once you have your method, put your blinders up and don’t compare your method to someone else’s. Find your motivators What motivates you? Is it stickers, word counts, sharing your favorite quote or progress on social media, snacks, something else? There are so many things people use to motivate themselves. Find what makes your motivation increase and do that. I don’t care if it’s silly, I use stickers! I literally give myself a sticker when I write. It works. Do what works for you. Find Your Friends I don’t have a group of people that I talk to about my writing. I don’t have content groups or critique partners. I have in the past and these all helped me grow into the writer I am today. These trained me to know my weaknesses and to prepare for them. For example, I am great at plot and world-building. But I am not good at character development. Who are these people and why should we care about them? Yeah, I suck at that. But I know I have to work harder at that. I am hoping in time to build a team around me that we can all give aid to each other’s writing in the future. But I don’t have that right now. But I did join writers’ groups on Facebook, and I follow indie authors on Instagram. I see what people are saying and draw information and encouragement from them. No Comparisons Allowed There is a fine line between gleaning ideas from someone and comparing yourself to them. You know the difference. Draw ideas all day until you have something that works. You can tweak as needed. But don’t compare once you have your system. Just Keep Writing The hardest part of all. Just doing it. You can’t never write and expect the book to write itself. You do have to write sometimes. Not all the time, but sometimes. Little by little you will progress. Hang up those inspirational quotes and then write at your own pace. There you go! That is how I got my first draft written and my ideas for how to get your first draft written! I hope this has been helpful and I hope you are excited and brimming with new ideas on how to get your first draft finished as well. Like I said, I am now in a second round of plotting. Figuring out even more nitty-gritty details of my story and characters so that as I edit I can add these details in. There are many drafts and edits to come but each draft will take me one step closer to holding that finished, published novel in my hands. Much Love, Jessica Marie
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Hello all! I know it's been awhile but I am back and I am here to list out my 2022 goals. Sort of. I decided to take some much needed time off for the holidays. While last week I intended to come back in full force, I got sick and was completely down for a couple of days. Luckily, aside from a cough, I am back to normal now.
I am not doing resolutions, and not doing grand things to complete by the end of the year. But rather smaller, more bite sized quarterly goals for both myself personally and for my brand. I think year-long, big picture goals make it too easy to procrastinate or feel overwhelmed by the size of the goal. While my health and fitness goal as well as my writing goal I did base on a time increment of a year. I still broke these down into my first-quarter goals. Things I want to have completed by March 31st. First Quarter Goals: Finish Shadows of Dawn first draft Finish my Skirt Bring back podcast & blog Finish first edits of short story series episode one I have a health and fitness goal, but I'm keeping that as well as a few logistical brand goals private. I will be back in April to report on how this has been going and what my second quarter goals are. Thanks to Author Brittany Wang (YouTube and Instagram) for the quarterly goals idea. |
AuthorJessica Marie Cunningham - Intentional lifestyle blogger, aspiring author, and podcast host. All things Slow Living, Books, Writing, Art, creativity, Christianity, and personal stories. Archives
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