I think my first draft is done (!) I don't know how that happened. When I began my writing session yesterday, my main character was still stuck walking down the road in the dark and in the rain. And I frankly didn't know what to do with her. The fun part of discovery writing is surprising oneself. The angst of discovery writing is scene paralysis. Eventually, I turned her around and headed her back home. I figured if that didn't work out, I'd just plop her back on the road again and she could continue her original journey. Turned out the homecoming worked.
Oh, the manuscript has issues. Writing in first person leads to a lot of, "I did this; then I did that." She's alone, so the only dialogue is internal. I've never been adept at describing action. I'm sure there's a fine line between too much and too little. I may have gone with "too much".
And, as is my wont, I probably rushed the ending. But dragging out the inevitable would feel like word padding. The manuscript was long past the point of adding additional complications.
I will give myself credit for tying all the loose ends together. Shoot, I brought back some minor characters and the goldfinch even made an appearance.
The ending might be too sappy ~ I'm on the fence on that. I don't like sappy, but I do like "happy". I suppose in a crime novel, an author can end with his detective uttering some philosophical words; a pithy comment on the human condition. But women's fiction, while often emotionally jarring, shouldn't conclude with the main character weeping into her pillow, and her "philosophy", if she even has one, is more understated; revealed by scene, not by quoting some obscure poet.
I have a lot of work ahead of me. I don't know what my word count is, although unless it's shockingly low, I don't particularly care. It's a novella.
I'll do a lot of editing, no doubt. But the bottom line is, I seriously considered abandoning this project, and look now! I finished it!
Gosh, I hope the next one is easier.
No comments:
Post a Comment