My Adjectival Mantra for First Drafts

Not the Author - DepositPhoto

Topic: First drafts, and the adjectives we'd choose to describe them.

UGLY. I tell myself this all the time when working on a first draft, as in “First drafts are meant to be ugly.” I don’t have to have perfect prose. If there’s obviously a scene missing or some piece of action I don’t feel inspired to write that particular day, it’s OKAY. I can keep forging ahead in the story and trust my Muse to supply the missing pieces later. This little mantra is very useful to prevent “paralysis by perfectionism.” I remember when I started writing, back in junior high school (we’re not counting the fairy tale I wrote at age 7) being surprised that the books didn’t flow perfectly and beautifully from my pen onto the paper. Ha! I had a lot to learn…

So when I use this word, I’m not being pejorative. I’m encouraging myself not to be daunted.

Satisfying. I’ve had this story and these characters bottled up inside my brain long enough and now it’s time to let them fly. Or teleport. Or drive the chariot. They’re on their way to the wider world of readers, even if not there just yet.

Unpolished. This isn’t the same as ugly. This is acknowledging to myself that right now I’ve used the word ‘that’ probably a zillion times and ‘very’ another zillion and so forth. There will be a process later of cleaning out those words and other problems, including ascribing emotions and stage business to all those talking head dialog situations. It’s a considered process and part of my pre-publication ritual, often included alongside dealing with the inputs from my editor. The main point at first draft stage is to not stem the flow of creativity worrying if I’m using the word ‘that’ too many times. I am. It’s a given. But it won’t be in the final draft.

I released a box set in the last week, the first three books in my award winning Badari Warriors series, all of which were ugly but satisfying, unpolished first drafts at some point!

BADARI WARRIORS: SECTORS NEW ALLIES BOOKS 1-3 by Veronica Scott

Ta Da! There’s no new material included, other than a brief recap of why I wrote each book (which appeared in previous blog posts) But I thought it was time to put the books together!

This Badari Warriors box set gathers the first three science fiction romance novels from this award winning series into one collection. Featuring genetically engineered soldiers of the far future, the Badari were created by alien enemies to fight humans. But then the scientists kidnapped an entire human colony from the Sectors to use as subjects in twisted experiments…the Badari and the humans made common cause, rebelled and escaped the labs. Now they live side by side in a sanctuary valley protected by a powerful Artificial Intelligence, and wage unceasing war on the aliens.

Amazon     Apple Books     Kobo     Nook

A Draft in Three Adjectives

A description of a draft in three acts:

Act 1 - Interminable
Once upon a time, the current WIP was started. It was bright. It was shiny. It was NEW! And there was every expectation that the WIP would meet the same warm welcome from its editor as the first two books of the series. Plot twist: It didn't. Broken hearted, it slunk away to lock itself in a drawer.

Act 2 - Intractable
Eight years passed. The WIP was near death, gasping its last few gasps when the drawer opened. "Guess what!" the author chirped. "We're baaaaack!" The WIP wasn't having it. Abandoned? Tossed aside? And then resurrected like some paper-based Lazarus? Nope. Wasn't gonna be that easy to bring this work back to life. But the writer wouldn't quit. Just. Wouldn't. Give. Up. Slowly, over a stupidly long period of time and with far too many words, the WIP and the writer got reacquainted. As in any good romance, they learned to trust one another again, at long last. They achieved mutual respect. Maybe even affection.

Act 3 - Imminent
And now the WIP is within a solid day's attention of reaching The End. Assured of a warm reception, (because that contract has already been signed) the WIP is barreling for a beta read and then to its editor. Which means we're right back to Act 1 for the next WIP.

My First Draft: A Story in Adjectives

As I develop the first draft of a new story it becomes, in turns,

raw
new
yikes [<--totally an adjective, as, "Well, that scene was yikes."]
eew
embarrassing
erased
re-imagined
better
slow
wordy
ugh [<-- see above note]
gross
problematic
clearer
fresh
patient
plodding
okay
progressing
rhythmic
better
purposeful
funny
sleek
gripping
excruciating

And finally, YES!

Now I see you! Now I know you! I mean, you’re still kind of ugly and you smell like feet, but your shape is good. I can polish out the rest of it. And I do love you so. *snuggles my ugly darling of a manuscript*

This is the point when I can let my critique partners peek and proceed to that next step.

Which of course involves murder.

And I unpacked my adjectives

Three words to describe the state of my first drafts:

Complete.

I change very little of the context of my first drafts. When I'm done saying things, I'm pretty much done.

Messy.

Yeah. Typos. They happen and I tend to miss them. The one time I ever hired an editor was because I needed someone to find those typos.
I used her for a few novels, and she was very good, She was also, sadly, not as fast as me.

Late.

It pains me to admit it, but I am seldom on time with my first drafts these days. I'm working on that. honest.

Speaking of which, back to the grinding wheel. these things refuse to write themselves!

Keep smiling,

Jim Moore ( Who is writing this Monday post on a Tuesday!)

Release Day: AVENGERS INFINITY PROSE (the novel) by James A. Moore

James is kickin' it in the movie tie-in business; ALIEN, PREDATOR, and now the Marvel Universe!  So if you're suffering an AVENGERS: ENDGAME hangover and want to linger in the world of the Earth's greatest heroes, buy this book today!

AVENGERS: INFINITY PROSE

The Avengers journey into deep space, where they unite the intergalactic races against the Builders--deadly aliens who seek to destroy the known galaxy. While the heroes are gone, Thanos sets his sights on Earth, sending the Black Order to launch the assault. It falls to the Inhumans, Black Panther, Doctor Strange, the X-Men, and more to defend the planet.

It falls to the other heroes of Earth--the Inhumans, the Black Panther, Namor the Sub-Mariner, Doctor Strange, the X-Men, and more--to defend Attilan, Wakanda, Atlantis, and the rest of the planet. To defeat Thanos, the defending forces will need to employ a new weapon--one that may be as deadly as the invading force.

BUY IT NOW:

Amazon  |  B&N  |  BAM!  |  Indiebound

Clean, Partly Cloudy, and Fuzzy

Our topic at the SFF Seven week is all about first drafts, and the adjectives we'd choose to describe them. My three?

Clean

I write pretty clean overall, which is a blessing. I'm lucky enough to have one of those brains that retains spelling and picks out typos pretty easily. My weirdest mistake is the homonym errors that emerge when I'm in deep drafting. Stupid ones - like know instead of no. I think it's because at my core I'm an auditory learner. When my trained, conscious mind is less engaged, I revert to how words sound. Otherwise, though, copy editors love me. There's usually not a lot of minor stuff to correct.

Partly Cloudy

For the most part the story is pretty clear when I'm done with the first draft - but there can be some places that are a little obscure. My developmental edits are almost always adding, clarifying and filling in. The polishing of the first draft makes it all shine with no fogginess.

Fuzzy

I spent way too long looking for the exact word I wanted here. Revising the first draft for me means tightening up the dangling threads. I really wanted a weaving term for this, but could only find the fix, not the adjective for the unfinished state. Sometimes I discover insights as I finish the story, so I have to go back and make sure those threads are apparent from the start. I trim up the dangling threads and sort of hem up the whole story.

Conferences: Tried It, Loved It, Stopped Doing It

Author's own photo from RT 2016

This week’s theme: Lit Cons, Fan Cons, Comics Cons: What’s Best For You?

I’ve been to NASA conferences, Romance Writers of America conferences, RT Booklover conferences and Wondercon. I’ve even done a couple of virtual conferences online and book readings fairly locally. I even got invited to a Star Trek con (on my own dime so I had to pass because it wasn’t in the budget at the time) because I’m an official Red Shirt Enterprise crew member, having read the part in a Star Trek audiobook! I had fun at all times. I enjoyed being a presenter, I enjoyed being in the audience, I loved meeting readers, meeting some of my own favorite authors,  going to parties, doing the book signings. Meeting up in real life with people I ‘knew’ on social media was wonderful!

With Author Friends at RT 2016 after a big reader event

Conferences of all types are off my radar now as far as I can see. Not to go into tremendous detail, travel is currently nearly impossible for me due to a couple of chronic medical conditions so I’m a homebody and internet denizen. I don’t even do days at Disneyland right now and that’s pretty darn close via freeway. I get to the grocery store and that’s pretty much it most weeks.

But even before that, I’d decided in late 2016 I was basically done with conferences. The travel and fees were pretty expensive for my budget and I didn’t feel the money spent was giving me a good return on investment as an independently published author. As a person having a good time, ok WOW, yes, bring it on and do more! But as a business decision for my particular small business (which a self-published author IS), I was better off spending the money on more targeted promo of my own books or paying for fabulous book covers, for example.

The experiences were priceless and I satisfied a number of my own personal goals about being a published author (do panels! do a big signing! do cosplay! Meet Nalini Singh!) But I couldn’t justify the hits to my bank account to rack up more of those fun milestones.

An additional consideration for me was that all the prep work before and the down time after that I required after a big conference and the associated travel cost me a lot of writing time while I recovered. Maybe other people can step in and out of their regular lives smoothly and do these big events with nary a ripple, but I’m not one who can.

I think my experiences go to show the truth of the rule that there’s no one right or wrong way to pursue being a published author and growing your base of readers. I tried doing cons, it was FUN OMG, but didn’t work for my particular business.

Not saying categorically I’d never do another but it would have to be a really special event that I could not resist and would require a lot of forethought.

Conference and Convention Love

Cons

I love me some cons. Comicons are my fav. Always have been. Maybe because they were my first experiences. There's nothing quite like wandering through the tables, flipping through someone's boxes of comics with your list nearby, trying to find those runs you're missing while the vendor helps search another box for the single titles you need. "I know I had some of them this morning!" Eventually, I graduated to sharing a table with some friends at a local con so I could unload parts of my own collection so I could focus in on specific artists and writers. 

Then I got to start going to RWA events. Local conferences. My first National conference where I wandered around wide-eyed and lost for most of the time, but I LOVED them. I got to listen to a few of my favorite authors in the world present classes. Thanks to Jeffe, I even got to have drinks with a few of them and to meet authors I'd never have otherwise met. Best of all, I made a bunch of new and great friends. I also trudged away laden with books. SO MANY BOOKS. I should have known I might be in trouble when there was a station set up specifically for conference-goers to ship boxes home. Yes. I did make use of it and still had to pay excess weight fees on my luggage going home. 

Eventually, I graduated to presenting a few classes of my own. And when conferences were local, I made a point of doing my damnedest to go. Still do.

I'm not to a place professionally where I get invited to speak or present at conferences. I'm working on changing it. One step at a time. The local conferences all comp a part of your conference fee if you present workshops and that works for me. If I succeed at rising from the ashes of my own publishing career, maybe I'll come up with a workshop about how to pull off a phoenix stunt of your own. Guess we'll see. 

On another note, if you'd like to enter for a chance to win one of two $25 gift cards, come give a few likes to a couple of PNR, Fantasy, and SFR authors. Yes. Many of them write shifters. So if that's your thing, c'mon down. You might find a new favorite author or three. Or four.