Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Done

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Posted by Tanglier (Member # 1313) on :

I finished the first draft last week, and I've spent the last five days editing.

It's slim. 44,000 words. There isn't a lot of hanky panky in the prose, but there is a good bit of funny. I did the plotting in October, started writing on Thanksgiving, finished the first draft in mid-March. *whew*

I guess I'm excited to start on a new project. For this last one, I wanted to keep the focus on two characters. I'm going to try tackle five characters and education in the next book. I'm still in a little bit of shock.

Birth, Growth, and Death. I had a philosophy prof once who said that a good book concerns birth, growth, and death, and writers fail because they don't understand growth. Figuring out how five people grow together is going to be some tough business, but that's what's next.

[This message has been edited by Tanglier (edited March 24, 2005).]

Posted by HSO (Member # 2056) on :

Congrats on finishing your draft. The editing phase often turns out to be the most difficult...

Regarding 'Birth, Growth, and Death', there is truth in that. I'm going to ignore Birth and just mention Growth and Death.

In nearly every story, a character must / should go through a change of some sort. This, I believe, is the growth your professor mentioned. Usually, it involves throwing up obstacles in their path, having them fail, and then realize that they need to change something about themselves to overcome and win the day. They have to learn... grow.

There can be many changes / obstacles a character faces throughout the course of a story, but a character who doesn't change, who fails to recognize the need for change, and fails to learn anything at all, usually gets shafted at the end of the story, or often Death. To paraphrase Survivor, "if the guy is an idiot, he deserves to die."

Shafting a character at the end can be a valid story, but it's likely that most people like their heroes to win -- even if winning means Death by self-sacrifice.

Just some of my thoughts... and Survivor's, too.

Posted by Beth (Member # 2192) on :

I agree 100%. stories in which a lot happens but the characters are exactly the same at the end as when they started are flat and static and leave me saying "so what?"

Posted by Beth (Member # 2192) on :

but I forgot to say: congratulations! Finishing the first draft is a huge step.

Posted by Jeraliey (Member # 2147) on :

I think that even if Birth and Death only show up in a metaphorical sense, it makes for a good story.

And congrats on the milestone!

[This message has been edited by Jeraliey (edited March 24, 2005).]

Posted by djvdakota (Member # 2002) on :

Cool!

Someone once offered me the advice that I should let a manuscript sit for 3 to 6 months before tackling the rewrites.

I went a bit overboard. It's been a year now, and I'm just getting the excitement level back to the point that I WANT to do it.

But I HAVE kept myself busy on other projects. Never stop.

Conrats.

Posted by Kolona (Member # 1438) on :

Nice going. Reward yourself.