Inspiration: Epic First Draft Fails

     I'm not supposed to be blogging on Thursdays this month. I'm supposed to be working on my JuNoWriMo project. At my current word count, I'm definitely on target to finish the manuscript by the end of June.

     But I can't.

     Not without overcoming some serious mental barriers. I'm gearing up to write a really intense, integral part of the story...kind of the pivotal moment, if you will. And I all I can think about are all the tangles still behind me in the first 40,000 words for JuNoWriMo Draft 1.

     First of all, there's the redundant redundancies that sneak their sneaky way into my manuscript. Some of my personal favorites include:

• “What are you still doing awake?” David was surprised to see his wife awake.

•  With faltering steps, she stepped in.

• Tiger didn’t have any more money to spend. He had spent it all already.

And then there's the goofy typos and misspellings, like:

•  There were dozens of girls aging in range from ten to eighteen.

• Sparrow didn’t know who the knew girl was. 

And, of course, since I'm often writing late into the night, there's those sentences that are so comically awful I started keeping track of them. I put these in my please don't ask category. For example:

• His heart hadn’t stopped beating since he entered the room.

• Tiger was subtly aware that he was panting with excitement.

• Mr. Tong rested his cup on his knee and looked out the window. (This sentence makes sense except for the fact that Mr. Tong is blind.)

• Translucent eyelids stared up at him. (Yeah, I told you not to ask.)

 

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Believe it or not, as embarrassing as these lines would be if they showed up in my completed manuscript, I'm inspired when I read them today. Yes, my first draft is going to have mistakes. Yes, some of the things I write this month won't many any sense at all. But that's why it's a first draft. So, today I'm inspired by my own mistakes, and I hope you got a good laugh out of them as well.

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Blog Love: The Thursday's Children blog hop is a chance for authors to write about what inspires them. Thanks again to Rhiann Wynn-Nolet and Kristina Perez for hosting.

Pretty please: My novel, The Beloved Daughter, was nominated for book of the month for an online book club magazine. You can vote for The Beloved Daughter at bookfun.org. (Note: You don't have to register to vote if you're on a computer. Sometimes iphones make you register first.)