Today I feel like a writer. I was up at around 3:30 this morning feeling like I just had to finish the rough draft of my current WIP, There’s no such thing as werewolves. This is what I call the Alpha version, and as I compose this post it just finished printing out on my printer.
As I write I sometimes leave holes in the story that I need to go back and plug, because I just cant wait to write the next scene, or a section is giving me some problems. Eventually I have to go back and plug those holes in the document. This is for me the hardest part of writing.
The concept through the initial run through is the fun/exciting part of writing for me. I rush ahead, and discover the story as it unfolds. I get to know my characters, run them up a tree, and throw rocks at them. Fun! I jump forward and avoid the parts I’m just not sure of, or am not ready to write. Then comes clean-up time, and it becomes really easy to avoid writing entirely, which I have been guilty of, quite a bit, over the past few weeks. It’s also why I haven’t posted here lately. (Sorry)
Anyway, as of this morning the hard work on this story is done. Now comes the polish, where first I go through a printed out (Alpha) version looking for obvious errors/problems/stuff-I-really-thought-was-good-when-I-wrote-it-but-in-reality-sucks. From this beast will emerge the Beta version of the story, which will be sent to a group of friends that I trust to be brutally honest with me about how much the story stinks. I’ll have a couple of weeks where I won’t look at the story at all. In fact I’m planning on writing something completely different during the time the story is at my Betas.
Eventually these wonderful people will get back to me with comments, corrections, and input on the story which I will go through and accept or reject, before the final phase of the project, where I will put together a summary of the story and send it off to my agent.
It is my hope that this story will be in my agents hands before Christmas, and I will be starting the new year off, up to my chin in my fantasy novel I’ve titled Amulet of the Fallen God. It should be about 4 to 5 times longer than the Templar stories, and be a bit of a change from that line. There is at least one more Templar story to tell, but I’m not quite ready to write it yet.
So, the Alpha awaits me. A break and Lunch comes first. Then a quiet corner, a cup of tea…and revision.
Look out Betas, here it comes….
Steve
A Writer's Haven 