My First Novel Writing Experience Blog

Finishing the First Draft!

I FINISHED MY 1ST DRAFT!  The last chapter has been written and I've finally finished this fairly large body or work and gotten my story out.  I had a great push in this last month thanks to the accountability of my Camp Nanowrimo experience.  This nonprofit website was create in a Spring Camp style and participants were grouped in cabins per the camp theme.  Most of my cabin mates had the same kind of 30,000 word count goals simular to mine. Well actually my estimate was just over 31 thousand words to complete my novel but I came up about 6 thousand words short of my projected end point.

This Camp Nanowrimo experience began on April 1st and with every writing session you were to post your word count totals.  I must admit that it really energized and standardized my writing efforts.  Since this was all being done part time, it's taken me some time to get this done, but the camp helped me to get into the daily writing habit.  I had a great desire to keep my word counts up.  I was no longer writing all by myself, with no accountability.  I suddenly had peers, also with their own writing goals, whose progress I could see and whom I showed my progress to as well.  This was very motiviating and really encouraged me to write often.  It's a different experience when you are working in tandem with other aspiring writers, also working hard on their own stories. 

The site had a message board where each cabin member could leave comments on their progress, and often encouragement to others as well.  It was a really great experience and really helped me to make that final push to complete the first draft.  They have a more famous event in November where they challenge writers to complete their 50,000 word novel in that month alone.  I plan to take up that challenge with a new book idea that's been perculating in my head, but that means I have to get busy on the next phase of this 1st novel,.. the rewrite!

While it's a sweet victory to celebrate the completion of my novel's first draft, like any other work, it's going to need rewriting, polishing and editing.  This process promises to be easier than the first, but it's still going to be a substantial amount of work.  This will be the phase where I'll no doubt find multiple flaws and misspellings as well as intended elements I left out entirely, or repeated more than once.  The document I have now is definately not ready for prime time for sure, but it's my story, created out of thin air, and now out of my head.  Now comes the refining of what I've done.  Now comes the crafting of this story into a novel that I pray people will enjoy.

Your prayers are still welcomed as I enter this new phase of writing.  I'll take a very short break and then will start by reading what I've created. Prior to this, I'll finish reading a good book on the rewriting process so as to hopefully provide some useful tips.  But for now, a minor celebration for my wife and I, and my thanks to God for helping me get to this point.

April 25th, 2015:
Current Novel Word Count:   78,198 Words 
Percentage towards 1st Draft Goal:  100%