Tag Archive for First Draft

Flash Fiction: The End Bit

December 3, 2012 Contest Entries, Fiction, Writing One comment

Coat of arms of unspecified drawn by Ssire for...

It has been a long time since I last wrote something for one of Chuck Wendig’s Friday flash fiction challenges. I know I say that a lot, but it has been weeks and for one reason or another I kept putting it off or I never found the time, which is probably tantamount to the same thing. Well this week’s challenge was too much of a sign to pass up.

For this week’s challenge he wants the last 1000 words of a novel, the ending, the summing, up the bit just before you get to the ‘Also by this author bit’. You get the idea. Maybe, just maybe if I had a go at writing the ending of my own struggling novel it would provide a bit more of a kick for me to write the rest of it. It does sound like it could work, and the worse that could happen is that I end up just writing some fiction instead, the horror.

So, with no more of an intro than the one I have already bored you with, here’s… ‘The End Bit’…

Oh, and it will very likely change if the damn thing is ever at a publishable standard so don’t start hunting me down if it differs. (I’m just thinking ahead, better safe than sorry.)

(N.B. That was a lot harder than I thought it would be.)

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When a work in progress just isn’t fun

November 18, 2012 Novel Writing, Writing 7 comments

sink hole plot tip rubbish ditch

For those who don’t know, I’ve had a work in progress novel going for over a year now, and I have lost all enthusiasm for writing it. What was once a joyful wander through uncharted creative waters has since turned into a joyless sink-hole of a chore that I struggle to wade through.

It started just over a year ago, with my first ever National novel Writing Month. Something which I’m sure a fair few of you are doing this year. Now, as far as the planning went I seemed to do OK, even the word count wasn’t really that much of a problem as work was a little thin on the ground and I found I had a lot more spare time. Read more

Novel Writing: Taming the First Draft

February 29, 2012 Novel Writing 3 comments

Novel Writing First DraftI have now finished the first draft of my novel. I started writing it on November the 1st 2011 as part of National Novel Writing Month and just under five months later, the first draft is finished. It stares at me from across the room, its face a mass of scars and matted fur, its body showing burn marks and the crude stitches of amateur surgery. It is a twisted monster devoid of love, filled with hate and anger.

I created this monster; it was the product of five months of ideas, changes, bad ideas, bizarre plotlines and even more bizarre plot-holes. I wasn’t expecting it to be perfect but I’m surprised at just how wrong it is in places. I learned a lot during this process, and that’s the point of course. It is my first novel and no matter how much I read novel-writing sites, help books or guides there’s no replacement for just diving in, making a complete mess of it and then turning that genetic mistake into a creature of beauty in the future edits. Read more