Writing novels ain’t no walk in the park. However, last week something pretty amazing happened; I finished the first draft of Kilonova Blues!
Ten months ago, I sat down at my computer and succumbed to the pressing urge I felt to write. It was Thursday April 20th, and during Thursday and Friday evening, I wrote the first chapter of 23 pages. The thrill I felt as the words came flowing out of me at that rapid speed was amazing. I was working full time as a project manager at the time, and of course, I didn’t have the energy to keep writing at that pace. But I kept writing. And last Friday, I finally wrote the last sentence of the first draft. It came in on 18 chapters and 111 390 words.
The project I was working with came to an end on December 31st, and I decided to take this opportunity to write full time for a while. So far, I’ve spent my time on building the website, content planning and writing to finish that first draft. AND IT’S FINALLY DONE! It feels surreal.
So, on Monday this week I began revising the first chapter of the text. What can I say but Oh. My. God. The quality of the text was so bad! I altered between laughing and crying as I read and realized that I probably needed to rewrite most of the chapter. I could definitely see the story I have in my head reflected in the text, but the way it was written was just so embarrassing. And I remember thinking something like “Yeah, I’m born to do this!” right after I’d finished it, thinking it was the best I’d ever seen! I’ve decided to view this as proof that my writing’s developed greatly over the past ten months, and that actually feels fantastic. I can only dream of where I’ll be in another ten months!
Development itself, in whatever form it may come, is amazing. It’s there to confirm that whatever we’re doing on this earth is actually worth something. Not financially, but personally. We get something for it. We become better, we refine our skills, we broaden our views of the world and ourselves. To be able to read that first chapter of the first draft of the first book I’ve ever written, and identify progress in my writing skills – I choose to see that as a gift. In ten years time, I hope I’ll be able to look at the five or six of my published titles on the book shelf, and think back on the courage I had to write that first draft all those years ago.
I’ve reworked the first chapter now, resulting in a cut of roughly 1 300 words and better formulations. Can’t wait till the next round where I’ll focus on replacing as many adverbs as I can possibly find and formulate even stronger sentences 😉 But first – chapter two, here I come!
That’s all for now,
hej så länge!
