My brain feels like pea soup so excuse me if I don’t make much sense today.
I have just finished my first ever complete first draft of a long story. It’s 7,000 words. I intend to write two more drafts before editing. I imagine the word count will swell as I develop the scenes, descriptions and characters.
I feel really pleased as this is something I have wanted to achieve for a long time. When I first started fiction writing (at least 5 years ago) I couldn’t even string a very short story together. I had to take a lot of courses.
In fact I took so many courses they started to seem very samey!
The transition from course taking to writing my own fiction took several months. With hindsight I think I was too fixated on story mechanics and had a massive lack of confidence.
What really helped me was binge reading romances at the start of this year.