an honest look...

Though I haven't finished my first draft (almost there—just one crucial scene to go, then it's downward from there), I just went back to read the first couple of pages, and ended up taking them out and replacing it all. I feel better about what's going in, and kind of bemused about this whole revising thing.

I realize now that most of what I write in the first draft will altogether disappear. I remember reaching the 100 page mark and feeling very happy, but now...I'm betting I'll trash the first one hundred and maybe even the next 50. Normally I would imagine this would be crushing, but I'm hoping the second version will be truer to the story in my head than the first. Going with just the first five rewritten pages, I'm thinking I'm heading down a good road.

I guess you can never really know though. With that in mind I thought I'd do something of a progress report.

Total word count: 48, 396
Total pages: 216

Things I have yet to work on:

I need a fantastic book on the Spanish Inquisition. I need to flesh out my characters, and make them into recognizable people with complexities that mirror me and you. So far, every single character in Mapmaker, are two-dimensional (in my opinion).

World building: I have these vague strokes throughout that don't do much other than indicate weather, some buildings, and some creatures. I need to get down into the heart of the place (Merivale) and build it from the ground up. I just realized there are no insects mentioned at all (interesting, since out of all the variety available on planet Earth, I hate the confounded mosquito), no roads to speak of, everyone is eating the same thing (I guess I need to research what people ate in the 1500s) and though I constantly write that people wear boots, I never mention a single cow. And clothing! My word, the clothes they wear. Men wear simple shirts and trousers and women wear muslin dresses, that vary only in color. I have one friend reading this novel as I write, partly to keep me sane, and the other part to offer sincere input. She read over a scene and I mentioned someone wearing a petticoat. That person promptly tore off their petticoat to help staunch the bleeding of their friend. Of all the cliche things...ugh. I can't believe I wrote that. Getting rid of it, first thing. That's pretty horrorfic/rubbish/ridiculous/baffling writing if you ask me.

Revisions are going to be a blast.