Feeling the Distance

I have thought a lot about Considering How to Run for the past 72 hours and, without even re-reading a single word, I recognize it needs work.

No real surprise there; what I’ve got is only a first draft, and a quite haphazardly written first drat as well. My writing style for this novel was, well, start out with a premise and then each day shakily wobble forward, aiming only for enough words to substantiate a good blog posting, then stop. Kind of a gonzo way to go about writing a book, but it worked for me in that I’ve got a first draft to play around with.

So now I’ve got to review it for continuity. Plot holes. Cliches and instances where I can use the language better. Insert more original stuff. Have faith. Be spiritual. And ring that doorbell. And do a lot more to make the story more interesting, the characters more appealing and plant more motivation in the book so the readers understand why the characters are doing what they’re doing. Maybe it means I’ll have to go over the draft a few times, working at it and working at it to make things better, taking longer than if I’d planned things out from the beginning rather than just, every session, pointing myself towards the end of the page and letting go.

Yes I’m going to obsess about this a lot. That’s my schtick. And it’ll help me in planning out the next book I write, once I get the system down.