30-Day First Draft: Week 2.5 Report & Lessons
70,117 Words Later
On August 19th, I started my attempt to write a first draft of a sci-fi novel in 30 days.
Since then, I’ve written 70,117 words, an average of 4,115 per day (including weekends), which has kept me perfectly on track for the project’s goal.
Here are a few more things I’ve learned since the last update.
I’m Going to Finish Early: I set the pace for 120,000 words in case I needed to use all of them, but I suspect I’m going to finish in the 85,000 - 100,000 range.
I suspected this from the beginning, but wanted to have that buffer in case I went longer than expected. But based on where I am in the story, I might have it wrapped up in the next week.
But then I want to go back and add some scenes and details that I’ve thought of along the way, so I’ll still have a good use for the remaining time.
Less Talk, More Work: I’ve fallen off updating Twitter every day, and never even started updating Instagram every day, because I’ve realized from doing this how little all of that matters.
What matters is writing a good book. And if you write a good book, people will share it and talk about it. All of the noise on Twitter about Crypto Confidential was because the book was good and people were excited to share it. Not because I was talking a ton about it on Twitter.
I always knew the social media was kind of a fake work distraction, but now I realize just how incredibly distracting it is. I’ve barely been on it these last few weeks and wow is it freeing. Nothing there matters. This big, hard, enduring work is what matters.
I want to try to bring more of my focus in this direction moving forward. I think spending time on social media is probably a symptom of not having a big enough goal I’m chasing after.
The Problem Sheet is Also Essential: I mentioned in the last update that having an outline was essential for not getting stuck, and another tool that’s helping almost as much is the “problem sheet.”
This is a note where I write down every problem I’ve run into or created that I need to go back and fix in the next draft.
E.g.
Secondary character should be introduced in this scene earlier
Need to foreshadow this location in Act 2
This character needs more dialogue early on since they get bigger than I expected
Mysterious symbol needs to get introduced in Ch1, not the end of Act 1
Things like that. These are the little thoughts you often have while writing that toss you out of flow and put you into editing mode, but when you’re trying to power through a first draft, they really slow you down.
Also, the things you think are important to fix now might not end up being important to fix once the draft is done. And the easiest way to waste time writing is by editing what is going to get deleted.
By having a sheet with all my problems, I can not only avoid getting distracted by editor mode, but I have a fantastic checklist to work through when I do get to editing.
Challenging Parts are Like Marathon Cramps: There’s this funny thing that happens to you in long endurance races where you might cramp up or get suddenly exhausted for miles.
But then you push through the pain and eventually it just… goes away. Even if you didn’t slow down and take a break.
There have been a couple days in the last week and a half where I’ve felt very down on the book, very burned out. But I’ve forced myself to push through it and maintain the pace and then I get back into a good rhythm and it feels good again.
Definitely a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, but it’s a useful counter experience to the narrative that you should “let yourself take a break.” Maybe you just need to keep pushing.
Anyway, that’s all for now. Big update when I’m finished! Make sure you subscribe to get it.
When you've crossed the finish line on your sprint, you might want to take a look at Story Grid (Book and method by Shawn Coyne and heavily influenced by Robert McKee, but Shawn takes it deeper and outlines genres in a comprehensive way.) It might give you a lens for revision.
My problem with word counts and word count goals though is that the word count becomes the metric of success and if the story doesn't work in the end, you have to throw all those words away and it's painful. Having a good outline is key as you said but if the outline doesn't cover vital points in the story and each scene isn't planned in a way that moves the story forward, you create pits in the story that impact the scenes around it.
I've been studying Story Grid specifically for a couple years now and have derived a scene synopsis format for my outlines that touch on the important change elements in the scene. "Problem Sheets" give you things you can "go back and fix" but having a clear sight of what your story is about and how each scene drives the change in your protagonist and world works like a roadmap where you be confident that, when the words are on the page, any rewrites will be minor or at the individual scene level.
Here's what I use to describe my scenes:
[Protagonist] is [Status quo/response to previous resolution activity] but then [Inciting incident] and so the want [Object of Desire] without [OOD Trade-off] which makes them [initial strategy] until [Turning Point Complication]. So they [Climax Action], despite [Crisis trade-offs], which results in [Resolution]
And I add the Story Event, which is what happens in this scene that drives the story forward.
Viewing these together gives me a map of my plot.
The above also applies to the story at the global level.
And trust me, after all that, the words are the easy part.
Thanks for another intriguing update, Nat. I like your take on social media, but what about the unknown beginner? How do you start to get your work known from zero without social media? This is what I worry about. I would also prefer to stay away from it, since I am prone to getting stuck there, especially mentally.