I finished Siegfried and Sarah.
Yes, the story is only forty-thousand words, but this is how stories work for me.
My first draft are skeletal. I will not be killing my darlings, as frankly, I don’t have many darlings to kill.
But I will later. I will layer on all the things that make the story come to life. Character motivation. What they are thinking and feeling. Maybe even a description of where they are and what they are wearing.
Yes, my first drafts are pretty bare, but they have a beginning, middle and end. They are a complete story, even if they are a very hurried, very incomplete story.
I have come to terms with my methodology of writing. I have learned to trust my inner muse, to let her have free reign on the first draft.
There is only one way to account for stock comp expense, but I believe there is a myriad of ways to write a book. I sometimes think the writing community’s obsession with outlining stems more from our society’s obsession to control things, to understand the process, and then sell that process.
If it works for Stephen King, it must be the correct way!
Except I am not certain this works with creative endeavors the same way it works for accounting. I also think it’s a lot harder to sell the pantsing methodology. You can’t really put together a class on trusting your muse and letting her see you through. And most writers have seen more than our share of classes on how to plot a novel.
I am rambling a bit about process here to hide the sense of loss I am feeling right now.
Siegfried and Sarah’s story is done. After the hours and hours we have spent together, I have their first draft complete.
It is with great sadness, and more than small feeling of loss, that I say goodbye to them.
I always feel such loss when I finish a first draft. I feel a certain sadness as I complete later drafts, but never as much as I do on this first one.
As I bid them farewell and allow them to enjoy their happily-ever-after, it’s time to turn my focus to revisions.
I can’t wait to introduce you to Sarah and Siegfried, but first, Sir Matthias needs his happily-ever-after…
