by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I have, since the beginning of this project a number of years ago, come up with some very strict, but very arbitrary rules of thumb when it comes to the structure of this novel I’m working on.
But a few things are beginning to wear away at my adherence to these rules to the point that I am beginning to want to ignore them for expediency. One is, this first draft is going to be way too long. But I’m reminded of how the first draft of The Blues Brothers that Dan Aykroyd wrote was a massive 300 pages. But he managed to pair it down to something a lot more manageable. And I think that’s what I’m going to ultimately do with this novel when the second draft is written.
Meanwhile, I’m also getting fed up with these dumb rules because I’m not getting any younger and I have to produce something, anything sooner rather than later. So, especially with the second draft, I think I’m going to put a priority on not only brevity but doing whatever is necessary to speed the process up some. I really — REALLY — want to wrap up the second draft of this novel at some point in spring 2023 so I will have the summer to get beta readers to look over the text and to, in general, prepare for the autumn 2023 querying season.
As such, my current plan is to just write crap for the first draft, no really thinking about word count then turning around and really focusing on word count — even if that means I break some of my rules of thumb. I simply can’t wallow in things that will delay me anymore. It’s put up or shut up time.
I really have been working on this novel way too long. But, in my defense, my writing and storytelling ability has improved significantly and, if nothing else, I’m not going to embarrass myself.
