The Rough Draft

I finished the rough draft of The Cross last year.  I printed out a copy of it.  I set it aside.  It was not like what I have it in my head. 

I took out the hard copy and started reading it.  It is not as bad as I thought.  It is exactly what I want it to be.  Sure it needs work, a lot of work, but I have a beginning, a middle and an end. 

I am a writer.

I got me a notebook and listed every scene.  I left enough room to add:

Time of Day

Point of View

Goal

Conflict

Resolution

I am going to do this for each scene.  Like I said, in a past post....Conflict is the key to keep the story going.

I know I make my characters to nice and in some scenes, nothing happens, so hopefully, this will make me come up with more conflict and make my characters suffer.

I have been watching Outlander...on Starz.... those characters suffer and something is always happening, especially at the very end of the episode (end of scene or chapter)  The last two episodes, I said...Oh No.. They had me, and I will be watching next week.

The point I am trying to make is write the rough draft...don't edit...just write the rough draft.....Print out a hard copy....find someplace quiet and read it, without thinking about changes.  You will be surprised that it is not as bad as you think it is.

No one has to read your rough draft.  You will do a lot of rewrites, but getting over the thought that you are a terrible writer or this is the stupidest thing I ever wrote.  You have written a story. 

So now you went from a rough draft into rewrite mode.

So when someone asks me how the book is going?  I say "I am working on the rewrite."

Embrace the rough draft, you are on your way to a published book