I’m in the thick of rewriting my WIP and I’m happy to say it’s finally flowing, that I’m finally progressing. I’ve covered 27K in two weeks, and I’m hopeful that in another three, I’ll be done with the first draft. I finally worked through my desire to go back and re-read/edit every. freaking. scene. It was a struggle, but I pushed through it. What helped me? Remembering this:
It’s okay to make mistakes in the first draft. For me, it’s a journey of discovery, and in attempts to try to “get it right” right away, I was shutting down. I also realized that in order to be able to revise anything, I needed to write something first. And I had a plan, an outline. At first, I fretted that I didn’t have all the details worked out. That I only knew with certainty the major plot points, how it ends. I also had the first half more fleshed out, but that second half scared the bejeezers out of me. Because while I knew what was going to happen, I wasn’t sure how I was going to connect the dots. Then I remembered this:
And I took it by sections. As I connected the inciting incident to the first plot point, the events coming right after came into focus. As I connected the first plot point to the second, the details after that became clear. It’s been a dance. Write, flesh out outline more. Write, flesh out outline more. I’m happy with this progress, and I feel more confident with how the story is evolving. I have half the manuscript written, and though the other half is still blank:
You would think that with two other manuscripts under my belt, I would feel more confident and comfortable with this one. But truth be told, each one has brought with it a different process, and a different set of emotional expectations. I’ve done a lot of soul searching with this WIP. It’s too close to my own experiences with my autoimmune disorder, and because of that, it’s too painful at times. I find myself wanting to protect my MC–a lot, too much–and I’ve learned to identify this problem so I can fix it. Because it’s been hard to write, I know it’s important to write.
I’m hopeful and optimistic I will be writing THE END by August 1st. Then I look forward to revision, when I can take this clump of words and continue shaping it into the story I know it can be.
Happy writing, everyone!
Alexandra Alessandri 