In the last post, I looked back on how my (lack of) ambition changed since the first ideas to the moments I was actually writing.
Now that I am doing the finishing touches on the sixth draft which is to be the first beta draft, I decided to look back on the individual drafts and the story’s state in them.
I’m now quite close to having the beta draft complete (more on that in a few days) and start looking for the first beta readers and so I’ve decided to make a post that’ll look on how I saw the potential finish line, so to say. It surely changed over the years, the question is: how much?
Even though I expected to do mostly smaller revisions and some consolidation (UK/US spelling, location naming consistency, capitalization consistency), I eventually did one larger change when preparing the current draft. I took out a big part of the early story – some parts were removed completely, some parts were compressed. The reason was that it felt like it takes far too long to set up and get to the point.
Fact is, I was thinking of doing this in one way or another for a while. And it led me to think about the topic of cutting stuff from a draft: where, how and why I did that over time.
Continue readingAs of now, it’s three years to a day when I decided to give writing a try and started writing a sample chapter. Where has all the time gone? The fact that I am still going on feels like a personal victory, even though the finish line is still in distance. By my original plan, I hoped that today would be the release date for the first book but it needed even more time than I expected. So, what’s my progress for the last month and the outlook for the near future?
Backstories. Details that make the story and the characters more likely by revealing bits that happened in their past or even before and tie in into the present. Something that makes the story more complex.
Something I feared for all those years before I gave writing a try – and even the first years. How can I, who has nothing but an idea, make a story complex enough to stand a chance?
It’s getting close to three-year-anniversary since I started writing. It brought me to think a bit about how it started and how it went and to see how I changed in that regard. Doubt is still pretty much constant companion yet it is more often accompanied by hope. I hope that during those three years, I learned something and that each draft is better than the previous one.
Now, where I see the changes?
I think I’ll never be a planner when it comes to writing. When I was writing my May update, I was going through the first draft of #1 on a quick edit pass mostly aimed at some typos and obvious issues, as well as to just get the story back into my head and make notes about possible continuity issues between #1 and #2 so I could have a look at them when preparing the beta draft of #1.
Even though I am still some time and work away from finishing my story, apart from writing, I am trying to make progress elsewhere.
Since I am active Goodreads user (though so far as a reader) I was slowly trying to see if fellow readers and writers alike could help my efforts even without any specificity. Plus, it’s where I’ll most likely start my search for beta readers later next month.
So, I’ve been increasing my activity there. I joined a large and quite active group focused on SF and Fantasy some time ago (half a year maybe) and since then I am doing my best to participate in discussions when I have something to say on the topic.
A few times, I found myself thinking about some characters in the story I am working on and how their role and “screen time” changed from where they began (in concept stages or first draft) to where they are now (fifth draft of #1) and how these changes affected their future. I guess that characters being relevant more or less than the original plan happens and it can happen that some character is crossed out completely, especially if he or she was a cameo appearance.
In this post, I’ll look on some of those cases from my own experience.
Another month? Where’s the time gone? Okay, I know. Assignments on uni, hockey championship…
Anyway, my writing progress. There’s definitely some, even if it might be harder to see. I came to the realization that my progress reached the point where I can’t move on without external feedback. In other words, the beta stage is coming soon. This fact affects my latest progress.
Tomas - the wandering dreamer 
You must be logged in to post a comment.