Monday, October 26, 2009

Book 2 draft 1

I finished a draft for book 2 today. It's still pretty rough, but I think it has a workable story. I have two other attempts for book 2, but neither of them fully worked. The second attempt ended up being two books in one, so I took one of the ideas and used it for this third try. I'm thinking of pulling book 4 also out of that second attempt. I also have an outline done for a book 3.

Now that I have a functional draft, the real work begins. I think of it like having a clump of clay on the pottery wheel. First, you have to get the clay there before you can work with it and mold it into what you want. The first draft is just a lump of clay.

When I went to the UVU writing symposium last month, Brandon Sanderson talked about the importance of rewriting. He quoted James Michener, who said something to the effect that he was not a very good writer, but he was a good re-writer. That gave me hope. I don't have to have a perfect first draft, I just need to have a good story that can be molded and shaped into a good novel.

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