Hardly an auspicious start, but I broke through my first 1,000 words this week and named two characters. I’m off the ground at least.
Here are three things which are already blindingly obvious to me:
- I may like to think I’ve learned from writing my first book, and that I can bring those learnings, newly acquired writerly abilities and Book One experience to bear; but at this point, I feel like a child who’s been given a pencil for the first time, and isn’t quite sure which is the business end.
- I need to re-read all those posts I’ve written on ‘show not tell’. Two pages in, and I’m already stating the bleedin’ obvious, line after line. A bit of self-flagellation is in order.
- Inciting incident… conflict… what?
This is going to be tough. But I promised short-and-sweet, so that’s it for tonight.
Julie Lawford 
🙂 The start of a story is the most exciting… all these new untried characters, we don’t know yet what they’ll get up to, if they will turn out like us or someone we know…
“Show don’t tell”? TBH it took me years to figure out what they even meant! To quote some piratical character, “I think of them more as guidelines” :-D. To quote another weird character from Roald Dahl: “We are the music makers – and we are the dreamers of dreams”. You go, girl!
Thank you! Time to make some music. I’ve taken too many months off – I’m rusty at the moment. I need to feel it all again 😊
🙂 It comes back quickly.
… btw that book looks gorgeous.
Wow, thanks again… Singled Out is a gritty psychological story. I published in February this year. In case you want to take a look, it’s available on Amazon, and there are links to multiple Amazon pages from the Singled Out page here on the blog.
Thanks!
It’s really, really good, qipsika!
😘😊😀
🙂
Well done Jools 🙂 Am 3k words into my new book and it feels strange. Me and my characters are being awkward and shy with each other!
I know this feeling… My central character is an old friend – Brenda from Singled Out – but everything, and everyone else, is new.
In no time at all you’ll be back in the swing of things. And showing is okay in a first draft, right? Lets us know what we want to get across. We can put it into telling action next time around. 🙂
It’s been such a long time since I’ve been at this point… 5 years!
That’s how I felt between my first and second book. Luckily, with a little cerebral oil, we loosen up the circuits and it all comes back. 🙂
I’m waiting for this to happen still!
Each new book is an experience in its own right. I often get anxious as to whether I can do it again during the first few chapters. But you’ve made a start, you’re getting to know your new characters and you DO have the knowledge to do this again, even better than the last time. So stop worrying how it looks now, allow yourself to write poorly if necessary and get the story down. Everything can be made better in the edit. 🙂
Thanks Dylan. After a couple of false starts, this is the one. I’m taking advantage of the quiet ‘holiday season’ to get going. That, plus my new Mac of course. 😉
WooHoo! Starting is the hardest thing! Can’t wait to see what Brenda gets into next. 🙂
Ha! That makes it sound like one of those Enid Blyton novels of our childhood…. “What Brenda Did Next”!! Now, *that* I’ll be keeping quiet about. 😉
Haha! That’s were it all started for me… long live the Secret Seven and the Famous Five!
And ‘The Mystery of…’ Stories. Those were my favourites!
Just remember, as they say — the first draft is simply telling yourself the story. There will be plenty of time (and plenty of drafts) to fix it later!
Very good point. It’s a while since I wrote a first draft – it does well to remember this.
To be a writer is the most amazing thing, everytime you turn around, someone (you) has moved the goalposts!
We all have to keep and eye on those goalposts. In publishing – especially self-publishing – things change so fast. I was very struck with the way the landscape changed in the 4 years I was writing Singled Out and had my back turned. This time, I won’t be so insular!
Ouch (again)!! As with shame, we don’t like self-flagellation. So, please stop all of it. Now. 🙂 😉
I can’t say I much like self-flagellation either 😉 (glad to see you got the hang of those emoji’s!)
It’s a start, and I will get back into it. At the moment, it all feels a bit strange, as it’s quite a while (ahem… 5 years) since I last begun to write a novel. I will do better.
Good luck Jools. I sometimes find the second 1,000 words the hardest…
Hmmm… The second 1,000 will occupy the next few days! Hopefully sooner or later, more time will open up and I’ll be able to get more momentum.
Don’t micro-manage your own first draft, Julie, or you’ll never get past the first ten pages. Just keep going and see where it takes you. You’ll warm up later. Then you can go back and fix (or drop) the draft beginning. But you already know that! You just want us to hear it from us, right?
Something like that, Nina! 😀
Reblogged this on theowlladyblog.
Thanks so much for reblogging my ‘getting off the ground at last’ post!