I finished the first draft of my first novel. All 90,000 words of it. Okay, not exactly 90,000 words but 94,059 words. The first thing I did when I wrote that last word was to slump in my chair and let out a big sigh. This was the result of writing an average of 600 words per day from February 16 to June 30, 2022.
I should be saying I’m proud of myself and that I can’t believe I finished a rough draft. I am proud, but in the back of my mind is the common wisdom that the first draft of anything is trash and that the first novel of most budding novelists is likely to be terrible.
So what that means is that I could revise the story in 12 drafts and the story could still not be market ready for the simple reason that I’m a baby novelist. I need more experience basically. And yet I have to put in the effort to polish the novel knowing this. Or how else would I learn? I have to write those one million trash words to get to the good stuff.
I went back to the first chapter and I cringed. It is glaring how much I have improved in the time it took me to write those first few chapters to the last one. I haven’t decided on a title for the novel, but I have given it a working one: The Ancient Goddess
I suppose it is time to climb up another learning curve. The learning curve of revising a 90,000-word tome. Something I have never done before. I’m currently reading Refuse To Be Done by Matt Bell. A book on writing novels. Just to get a sense of how to revise this thing. I’m excited to see what the future brings.
I’m not counting on the novel being market-ready after going through 12 drafts. I’m certainly not attached to the idea of getting it published. I don’t think I’m ready. I have no immediate plans other than to start writing the next novel. Fingers crossed.