First Draft November, Days 11 & 12

Progress: 3,352 words. Total word count: 23,388.

First Draft November, Days 8–10

Day 11

Today’s word count: 1,680. Total word count: 21,716.

Today’s lesson from The Novel Writing Workshop is on audience! Something I really struggle with. The first exercise was to write a logline for the novel. I wrote this:

A memoirist dusts off her diaries to write a new memoir and gain sympathy before her child is taken from her.

I started with a very, very long sentence. I then took out soo much that the sentence lost all meaning. I then added some more and ended up with this. It’s not great, but I think it’s a good start.

Amy, the author of the workshop, suggested I include why her child will be taken from her, and or what kind of memoirist the character is. I haven’t incorporated the feedback yet.

Do you have any thoughts? feedback?

The sencond exercise was to write a jacket copy. I won’t share this because I don’t want to transcribe it.

The third exercise was to describe the ideal reader of this novel. I wrote this:

This reader either has a quiet love for comic series like Batman, or would if they read them. They are fascinated by the lyrical genius of Hamilton, and know the full lyrics to Creep, but can name only a few other Radiohead songs, if any. They can endure the full Handmaid’s Tale series, and would’ve loved A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara if only it hadn’t leaned so much into being ‘trauma porn.’

This reader always carries a book for their commute, but they also enjoy scrolling on their phone and looking out the window. They track the books they read on Goodreads or similar, and they are happiest when a friend asks to borrow a book off their shelf so they can talk about it next time they meet over a brew coffee or sparkling wine.

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It’s been a slow day. I sat by the desk for a while, but I’m not sure what comes next. I know what comes next-next. But I’m struggling with the transition scenes. Anyway, I pushed through 1,680 words. Not bad at all! We’re at 21,716, now. Yay!

First and last sentence fragments:

—to ever work out for us.

…

‘Please, give me—

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Day 12

Today’s word count: 1,672. Total word count: 23,388.

Today’s guiding question is:

Is there a moment where your main character recognizes the possibility of getting what they want? What does that look like?

There is! I identified a couple of instances where that is the case, but I didn’t really think about that when writing those scenes. So, I went back and added a few lines. I included those in today’s word count.

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Slow day, again. But we got it done. 1,672 words added, totalling 23,388. This week’s goal was 23K. We’re early, and we’re happy, and if we don’t reach the daily word count Thursday through Sunday, we won’t fall apart.

First an last sentence fragments:

—a reason not to do this.’

…

The smell of roasted peppers—

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