by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
The first act is getting a lot better, and, yet, as I go through what I’ve already written or plan to write, I continue to tinker with the specific lineup of scenes. This causes a great deal of delay because I sometimes have to think up entirely new scenes out of whole cloth.
And, what’s worse, my scene count continues to creep up. I was fell really stoked when I had the first act scene count down to ~30 scenes. But now it’s up to 36. This is really important because the longer the novel grows, the more likely I’m going to have to write a SECOND novel to pitch as my first because I just can’t sell a first novel that blows past 100,000 words.
It’s all very concerning and annoying.
And, yet the story I’m fleshing out for the second draft is really, really good. I’m really pleased and I really have an understand about the characters that I haven’t had before. This, unto itself, is enough to speed the process of writing up because even if it have to think up an entirely new scene, I know the characters and story well enough at this point that things go really fast.
But here I am, 16 days in and I’m not even out of the first act yet. I really need to speed up. I can’t just keep drifting towards my goal. I need to buckle down and actually do some hard work — even when maybe I’m not all that motivated to do it.
The issue is — if I don’t speed things up, it will be the fall before I finish this second draft and then that pushes everything else down the road. I really want to start querying early next year and, as such, I need to wrap this second draft up no later than, say, July 1st.
I also want to read — and watch movies and TV — a lot more than I have in the past. I have found that if I actually lower myself to consume someone else’s media that I’m far more productive with my own creation. It’s I’m so used to producing rather than consuming content that I really struggle with switching gears like that.
Anyway.
I really have to focus. I’m really excited about what’s going on with this novel, but there is going to come a point where if I don’t finish something, anything, I’ll be so old that it’ll all be moot. I have to stop treading water and actually be willing to move forward, even if I feel the draft is less-than-perfect.
