And they all died in the end.
This is my commemorative I-finished-my-novel-draft! post. At 10:02 pm this evening, I typed the last word of the last chapter, checked my word count one more time, hit save, and closed the file.
Finished! And it feels so good.
What's not so good, though, are my last three chapters. Actually, they're fairly dreadful. I think I mentioned in another recent post how I'm not very well-practiced in writing story climaxes and endings. The last few chapters read more like a screenplay than a novel -- they get the job done, they tell the characters what to say and where to go, but there's nothing particularly pretty or evocative about them. I know that can be fixed and will be fixed, but I'm already kind of jittery about doing so. When it comes to endings, I'm a beginner. Apologies for the cutesy wordplay. There's no other way to put it.
Adam has a longstanding practice of pretending I write porn stories instead of contemporary YA. He'll see me typing and sneak up behind me, acting as though he's reading what's on my screen. ("Oh Manuel," Priscilla said breastily.) Or, I'll come out of the office / spare bedroom looking frazzled after a writing session, and he'll say, "So, has Manuel ignited Priscilla's passion?" His latest thing has been pretending that the climax of my novel was about the (male, teenage) main character realizing he was actually a middle-aged woman. And also a stripper. So, the final line of L's Novel: Adam's Version is, "Mitchell put on her thong and headed to the stripper pole one last time."
I'm going to try to wait at least three weeks before I start the third draft. The funny thing about this second draft is that, after I got about halfway through, I realized that finishing it was more of a personal challenge than anything else. I had an epiphany about what I really wanted the book to be -- a fictional memoir, "written" by the main character and addressed to his estranged best friend -- and for a while, back when I was on Chapter 8 or 9, I wondered what the point was in finishing this second draft instead of moving on and trying the fictional memoir thing. But there was a lot of point to it. Nailing down the plot. Writing a climax and an ending. Not having one more abandoned draft on my hard drive. Experimenting with a couple plot points and, after writing them into the story, realizing they were pretty stupid. This is okay. This is all okay.
One thing I'm sad about is having to get rid of my chapter titles in the next draft. I really do like them. I'm preserving them in this entry for posterity.
Prologue - 750 Words or Less
Chapter 1 - In Defense of Mushrooms
Chapter 2 - The Convict and the Runaway
Chapter 3 - The Schoolbook Depository
Chapter 4 - Heavens to Becky
Chapter 5 - The Youth and Beauty Brigade
Chapter 6 - A Plague on the House of Waterson!
Chapter 7 - The Last Chili Dog
Chapter 8 - Squirrel Suicide Month
Chapter 9 - Womb To Tomb
Chapter 10 - All Intensive Purposes
Chapter 11 - Of Course
Chapter 12 - I Will Be Dead In Harvard
Chapter 13 - Cookies For All
Chapter 14 - Back To The Schoolbook Depository
Chapter 15 - The Zapruder Film
Chapter 16 - Native Boy
Chapter 17 - Rather Excruciatingly Apt
Chapter 18 - The Babushka Lady
Chapter 5's title is from one of my favorite Decemberists songs. Titles of Chapters 12 and 17 come from Quentin's section of The Sound and the Fury. Titles of Chapters 9 and 16 are from West Side Story. Chapters 3, 14, 15, and 18 refer to details that figure in JFK assassination conspiracy theories.
Oh, and I had two other FINALLY! accomplishments today:
-- I bought a new digital camera.
-- Adam and I saw The Simpsons Movie.
And now I'm ending this weekend on a high note. Off to bed.
Finished! And it feels so good.
What's not so good, though, are my last three chapters. Actually, they're fairly dreadful. I think I mentioned in another recent post how I'm not very well-practiced in writing story climaxes and endings. The last few chapters read more like a screenplay than a novel -- they get the job done, they tell the characters what to say and where to go, but there's nothing particularly pretty or evocative about them. I know that can be fixed and will be fixed, but I'm already kind of jittery about doing so. When it comes to endings, I'm a beginner. Apologies for the cutesy wordplay. There's no other way to put it.
Adam has a longstanding practice of pretending I write porn stories instead of contemporary YA. He'll see me typing and sneak up behind me, acting as though he's reading what's on my screen. ("Oh Manuel," Priscilla said breastily.) Or, I'll come out of the office / spare bedroom looking frazzled after a writing session, and he'll say, "So, has Manuel ignited Priscilla's passion?" His latest thing has been pretending that the climax of my novel was about the (male, teenage) main character realizing he was actually a middle-aged woman. And also a stripper. So, the final line of L's Novel: Adam's Version is, "Mitchell put on her thong and headed to the stripper pole one last time."
I'm going to try to wait at least three weeks before I start the third draft. The funny thing about this second draft is that, after I got about halfway through, I realized that finishing it was more of a personal challenge than anything else. I had an epiphany about what I really wanted the book to be -- a fictional memoir, "written" by the main character and addressed to his estranged best friend -- and for a while, back when I was on Chapter 8 or 9, I wondered what the point was in finishing this second draft instead of moving on and trying the fictional memoir thing. But there was a lot of point to it. Nailing down the plot. Writing a climax and an ending. Not having one more abandoned draft on my hard drive. Experimenting with a couple plot points and, after writing them into the story, realizing they were pretty stupid. This is okay. This is all okay.
One thing I'm sad about is having to get rid of my chapter titles in the next draft. I really do like them. I'm preserving them in this entry for posterity.
Prologue - 750 Words or Less
Chapter 1 - In Defense of Mushrooms
Chapter 2 - The Convict and the Runaway
Chapter 3 - The Schoolbook Depository
Chapter 4 - Heavens to Becky
Chapter 5 - The Youth and Beauty Brigade
Chapter 6 - A Plague on the House of Waterson!
Chapter 7 - The Last Chili Dog
Chapter 8 - Squirrel Suicide Month
Chapter 9 - Womb To Tomb
Chapter 10 - All Intensive Purposes
Chapter 11 - Of Course
Chapter 12 - I Will Be Dead In Harvard
Chapter 13 - Cookies For All
Chapter 14 - Back To The Schoolbook Depository
Chapter 15 - The Zapruder Film
Chapter 16 - Native Boy
Chapter 17 - Rather Excruciatingly Apt
Chapter 18 - The Babushka Lady
Chapter 5's title is from one of my favorite Decemberists songs. Titles of Chapters 12 and 17 come from Quentin's section of The Sound and the Fury. Titles of Chapters 9 and 16 are from West Side Story. Chapters 3, 14, 15, and 18 refer to details that figure in JFK assassination conspiracy theories.
Oh, and I had two other FINALLY! accomplishments today:
-- I bought a new digital camera.
-- Adam and I saw The Simpsons Movie.
And now I'm ending this weekend on a high note. Off to bed.