July 8, 2026

Easy Now

I want to provide an update to my post from early May which was a point at which hammering out the first draft of a novel was feeling like smashing my head against a brick wall—painful and not fun. After writing an entire novel last year that turned out to be nothing (mercifully! because I never want to have to look at it again!), I was more than a little concerned that was just the way I did things now, which did not seem like the best use of time. But I am happy to report that my current writing project really does seem to be otherwise.

I had to break my cardinal rule of first drafts to get to this point though, which is a reminder that even the best rules have their limits. And that rule, for first drafts, was JUST KEEP GOING, GET TO THE END, but by 52,000 words into the manuscript, it was clear that I hadn’t built sufficient threads into the narrative to sustain the story. And so I went back to the beginning, in fact I wrote two entire chapters that take place before that beginning, and I added all kinds of points, scenes and details that flesh the story out. I was also making a common error I see in my manuscript consultation clients’ work, which is exploring disconnection between two characters by having them share no common points at all. But like, if the characters are already so disconnected that no connection can be elucidated, then who cares, right? No, the stakes arrive when the threads are there, even if they’re just barely hanging on. Or when you bring two characters into the same room but they might as well be a million miles apart.

The story was lying really flat in May, and part of my objective in going back to the beginning was adding motion, movement. My original opening scene took place in the morning, as the sun rose, but that is boring and cliched. The new opening scene features my character in the middle of eating her lunch at her desk in her office (which is prohibited) when she is interrupted by a senior staff member with an urgent request, and now all of a study there are stakes, momentum, ongoingness. The story had been missing its energy, its driving force, but it’s there now, and so is the humour. I honestly have no idea how to write funny, and certainly a story that’s flat is going to make humour even harder to come by, but I’ve managed to conjure it, and it’s delightful.

I had a goal of finishing my first draft by the end of July, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. I’m still going through that first first draft, adding substance and details to it, and I’m only 2/3 of the way through. But I’m getting somewhere, and even better, I am having fun.