30-Day First Draft: Week 2.5 Report & Lessons
On August 19th, I started my attempt to write a first draft of a sci-fi novel in 30 days.
Since then, I’ve written 70,117 words, an average of 4,115 per day (including weekends), which has kept me perfectly on track for the project’s goal.
Here are a few more things I’ve learned since the last update.
I’m Going to Finish Early: I set the pace for 120,000 words in case I needed to use all of them, but I suspect I’m going to finish in the 85,000 - 100,000 range.
I suspected this from the beginning, but wanted to have that buffer in case I went longer than expected. But based on where I am in the story, I might have it wrapped up in the next week.
But then I want to go back and add some scenes and details that I’ve thought of along the way, so I’ll still have a good use for the remaining time.
Less Talk, More Work: I’ve fallen off updating Twitter every day, and never even started updating Instagram every day, because I’ve realized from doing this how little all of that matters.
What matters is writing a good book. And if you write a good book, people will share it and talk about it. All of the noise on Twitter about Crypto Confidential was because the book was good and people were excited to share it. Not because I was talking a ton about it on Twitter.
I always knew the social media was kind of a fake work distraction, but now I realize just how incredibly distracting it is. I’ve barely been on it these last few weeks and wow is it freeing. Nothing there matters. This big, hard, enduring work is what matters.
I want to try to bring more of my focus in this direction moving forward. I think spending time on social media is probably a symptom of not having a big enough goal I’m chasing after.
The Problem Sheet is Also Essential: I mentioned in the last update that having an outline was essential for not getting stuck, and another tool that’s helping almost as much is the “problem sheet.”
This is a note where I write down every problem I’ve run into or created that I need to go back and fix in the next draft.
E.g.
Secondary character should be introduced in this scene earlier
Need to foreshadow this location in Act 2
This character needs more dialogue early on since they get bigger than I expected
Mysterious symbol needs to get introduced in Ch1, not the end of Act 1
Things like that. These are the little thoughts you often have while writing that toss you out of flow and put you into editing mode, but when you’re trying to power through a first draft, they really slow you down.
Also, the things you think are important to fix now might not end up being important to fix once the draft is done. And the easiest way to waste time writing is by editing what is going to get deleted.
By having a sheet with all my problems, I can not only avoid getting distracted by editor mode, but I have a fantastic checklist to work through when I do get to editing.
Challenging Parts are Like Marathon Cramps: There’s this funny thing that happens to you in long endurance races where you might cramp up or get suddenly exhausted for miles.
But then you push through the pain and eventually it just… goes away. Even if you didn’t slow down and take a break.
There have been a couple days in the last week and a half where I’ve felt very down on the book, very burned out. But I’ve forced myself to push through it and maintain the pace and then I get back into a good rhythm and it feels good again.
Definitely a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, but it’s a useful counter experience to the narrative that you should “let yourself take a break.” Maybe you just need to keep pushing.
Anyway, that’s all for now. Big update when I’m finished! Make sure you subscribe to get it.