I love the beginning stage of a first draft. A thousand words at a time, just chucked out there. There's a little thought to pacing, and what to write and what to withhold, but mainly it is fun to just get it down. Knowing that the majority of this particular draft will probably be cut, or at least rearranged, there's no real fear about it being any good. Because it doesn't have to be good now. It just has to appear on the page.
A thousand words at a time.
No problem.
And I have notes. Real notes with plot ideas! Which means I've done a lot of the hard (for me) part already. Now I get to discover character motivations, voices, and desires. That's fun - almost like making new friends, if by "making" I mean inventing, and by "friends" I mean pretend people who inhabit a story.
So on, on to victory - or at least another first draft. Because there may come a day when the words won't come, or the characters will only fit into narrow, cliched confines. But today is not that day. (Cue the music from "Return of the King").
Isn't writing fun?
I'm just glad there are people like you to do this for me. Love ya.
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