Some writers adore their first drafts while writing them. They feel like literary geniuses, authorial divinity as they lavish their empty pages with words fit to make Olympus rejoice. Then, next day, as they review their work with an editorial eye, they retch a little because first drafts are nearly always atrocious. This is not how I work. Perhaps one of the biggest reasons I'm so slow in writing is because I abhor my first draft, even as I strike the keys. I loathe it, weeping in frustration at the despicable hack who dares pose as an author*. Then, next day, the editor in me breathes a sigh of relief because he can at least work with this. Usually.
This most recent project was especially frightening. I started it not because I was inspired to write a special story, but because it needed to be done. I want to offer a free introduction to the Strategy Series, essentially an elaborate advertisement. I had a bare plot, and only a narrow, ill defined notion of character. I know what needs to be included to make a compelling story; crisp, distinct voice, likeable, charming characters. Knowing what to do, however, and executing, are two different things. I began writing and ground my teeth at the absence of soul or cheer or incisiveness, or anything that makes a story interesting. It was shaping up as both long and boring, the opposite of what we need to sell the series.
However
I can work with this. I see where I have gone wrong. I've adjusted details at least half a dozen times. Characters are taking shape now, in the bottom 1/4 of the draft, so I have time to wrap back around and infuse it in the top 3/4. I'm confident. It's going to be great.
*perhaps I'm being a teensy bit hyperbolic
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