I finished the first draft

It’s an exciting time for me because even though I’ve started many a draft, I’ve never finished one. I think that one of the best things is knowing that you have a story completed, that you’ve connected the dots. Even if it’s rough, and short and totally needs more work. You have a beginning, middle and end for once. It’s amazing. I’m still actually a little surprised, but also kind of excited.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to post about it, I don’t want this blog to become about writing because that’s not the purpose, but I also want to share these little bits with you all because they are important to me. I think sharing them can be important and helpful when trying to connect with each other.

The start to the month has been pretty good so far, the first draft clocked at only 26k which is beyond short, but my main goal was just to get the story complete because I always stop when I get so close and I don’t connect it all to the end that I’ve pictured. I wanted to do this differently, it will probably be massively more difficult to edit because I have to add so much to really fill things out but I’m okay with that because. I finished a damn story for once!

I’m super pleased with the ending as well. The novel is a horror but also a supernatural-y paranormal-y book because there are ghosts and all that jazz in it. I’ve always pictured a book that left in a really rough spot for the reader, one that kind of gutted you because you knew that it wasn’t over. One that would make the reader be upset but happy but angry but love it all at once. I always wanted an intense ending, with a lot of emotions and I think I have it! It’s not perfect, there are some things I need to perfect of course. But so pleased.

I read that a horror fiction novel should be around 70k to 90k. That’s a lot missing. I’m currently, on the second draft, just shy of 30k so I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me. The interesting part is thinking of what’s missing, or what could be better, or what I don’t need. Finding stupid typos and wondering why I actually wrote “knew” instead of “new” and didn’t think twice about it.

I hope that this next part doesn’t take me three years to complete, because that would be disappointing but I have a feeling that having this blog in a way helps because it’s exposing me to more writing. I know that my narrative probably isn’t great, I’m terrible and tenses, and I hate hate having to describe a room or a person. It will take some work but I’ll update you all as I go. Maybe put more excerpts up for opinions later when I get things more filled out.

What are you working on right now? How’s your WIP coming? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!!