I am trying to finish the first draft of a children's book that I started last October. It is frickin' hard. Everytime I sit down to write, I have to resist the urge NOT to write. I have a series of well honed avoidance procedures to avoid the laying of font onto the blank page. My writing process goes something like this:
Welcome to first draft hell.
- Drink coffee at a cafe. Surf social media.
- Remonstrate self and get off social media.
- Write a few sentences.
- Feel disillusioned about the crapness of the sentences just written.
- Suddenly remember something urgent that needs doing. Such as Googling a random fact or Whatsapping a friend to say Hi.
- Look at the time. Only an hour left before writing time is up.
- Read through the last page that was written. Write a few more sentences.
- Sigh. Look out window. Get more coffee.
- Sit down. Get up. Go to the toilet.
- Sit down. Feel a sense of urgency.
- Call the Husband who is really busy at work. Moan about nothing. Look at self from above and think self needs a slap.
- Write a paragraph.
- Review total word count of the 'day's work'.
- Word count is 246 words.
- Shit. Self imposed writing rule is 1000 words per session. Minimum.
- Write nonsense for 10 minutes. No clue what I am writing about anymore.
- Look at clock. 25 minutes left.
- Force myself to write up to 900 words, knowing at least 800 of these words will be cut in a future edit.
- Eavesdrop on the guy sitting next to me in Starbucks.
- Decide to write a random blog entry on writing.
- Write the blog entry in 5 minutes.
- Check phone. Clear emails and messages.
- 10 minutes left.
- Write. Time's up.
- 1251 words further in to a story that is a complete mess.
Welcome to first draft hell.
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| Amen to that |
