Take Three

As this is the third post in Moil & Merriment, it seems like the right time to admit that it took me three attempts to get through one first draft of a manuscript. That's three "plots". Three sets of characters and three versions of myself that I've tried to commit to written word. If you consider the completion of a first draft a success, which I do (no matter what happens with it), then it means my first two attempts were total failures. Neither of the first two tries made it to a central conflict. Both meandered around little oddities I thought myself clever to observe and neither were plotted, but were just different sets of events strung together by protagonists' commentaries. (In fairness to my younger self, I thought that was the same thing as plot. I was wrong, but let's move on for now.) 

I've picked up a lot from doing my homework. I started reading everything; how-to books, grammar books, fiction in my style, fiction outside of my style, basically anything on paper. There is a wealth of helpful information out there and while I'm grateful to the people I've met at conferences and to the writers, agents, and editors who have taken the time to give us how-to books so that we have a place to start, I think the biggest difference, the thing that helped me get from first chapter to first draft was copious amounts of red wine. Just kidding! (Sort of. Maybe. Not really.) Ok, so besides the wine, the thing that really helped was that I learned to be open; open to new ideas; open to characters and stories developing on their own even if it meant leaving my outline behind, and open to advice and criticism. That last one, the criticism, is a real toughie, but even in the limited critiques I've gotten, I've seen so much of my work differently and not just the things that need to be worked on, though those are plentiful, but also I've seen the things that are working.

Now, don't get crazy! I am not offering advice here! I told you in post one that this wasn't the place for that, and I meant it, but what I am saying is that sometimes the first step can happen without you even realizing it. When I sat down to start my third manuscript, I had no idea that it would be the one I would actually finish. I didn't know that I would have learned, felt, and lived enough to make it through that one part of the process, and now, because I made it once, I can make it again.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go find a beret to fling into the air.