My original plan to was write my first draft and then edit afterwards. The thinking was that it makes it a lot easier to feel like I am making progress if I can see the wordcount climbing quickly because I am not spending hours going over the same words again and again. But as you may have read in the previous post, I had a real problem with my first act so I needed to rewrite early.
The good news is I’ve just reached the end of my first day in the book, and a lot has happened! I’ve introduced tons of new alien species, three key characters, transplanted in a decent action scene (originally planned for day 2), described some interplanetary street food (probably in way too much depth) and even threw in a space whale for good measure. Who doesn’t love a space whale?
The bad news is I’ve already consigned about 1,500 words to the scrap heap as part of the editing, including an entire character I had plans for (but realised was a bit useless). It’s a good thing to have done, but it is a little dispiriting word-count wise. It’s also meant I’ve actually written over 6,000 words this week rather than the planned 5,000. I think from now on when I need to remove something, I’m going to copy and paste it to the end of the doc so I can keep the story sharp, but also feel like I am still cranking out the words.
I also need to be bit kinder to myself. Lockdown is rough, and my mental health has been bad. Putting the pressure on myself to write every day and keep a really demanding job going is a bit much. So I may not make my wordcount this week, and that’s OK.