Morning. I always get slightly disheartened when I start my first read through. I know it is a rough draft but in my head that first paragraph was fabulous. I think believing that is what keeps me going in the rough spots as I work. I tell myself I have to keep going because I have to finish telling the story and I have to end as well as I started.
And then during the first read through I see how I started and it is never perfect.
I have my little sheet of words spell check isn’t going to help me with. I turn the grammar check on so I am forced to doublecheck my comma placements and after a few pages with the computer offering me suggested word choices I realize that this iteration of word wasn’t really designed for creative writing. It is designed for other writing, but the program really doesn’t seem to like when the word choices step out of the box it has designated as appropriate. I have this quirk where I really want to eliminate all of the underlined bits and so there will always be a point where I dip into on-line dictionaries, the sources and even English grammar sites just to double check something that the computer program has underlined.
Sometimes I start to take the corrections personally especially when it suggests a better word that completely changes the meaning of the sentence.
I also find small points i need to fix. I didn’t correct all of my tenses so I got through that section I originally wrote in first person and fixed those issues at well. I also marked something that I think may be a plot gap but I am not entirely certain. I highlighted it but I want to finish reading the manuscript as a whole before I decide how I am going to fill the gap, or if it really is a gap. One of the important parts of this first read through is to make certain the story flows as intended. I make changes as I write, No matter how detailed an outline I make at the start it is only one version of the story I want to tell. What I actually tell when I sit down to write is a different matter. Sometimes the early plot elements reflect the outline more than the story I wrote.
And sometimes I don’t realize how far I drifted until the final read through when I take the manuscript in one read through. It will take me three days to get through, but still reading from one end to the other helps see things that I don’t see when actually writing. I love to think of the rough draft as perfect on the day I complete it. It is a nice day of happiness and there is usually a happy dance involved. But it never is perfect, and this is the week where i look at it’s flaws. And take a step closer to the final draft. The slight disappointment in the lack of perfection fades after a few pages anyway. That’s when the ‘I can fix this and it will be fabulous thought takes over.
Ten til Midnight 