Writing a first draft is telling yourself a story. It’s discovering something, uncovering clues. Once it’s done, you see the whole picture, instead of just a series of disconnected pieces.
Knowing this, I think that once my first draft is done, I will be very tempted indeed to start over, to use those 400+ pages as “notes” or a template for the “real book.” I sense that only then will I really be able to inhabit these characters fully, instead of feeling like I am just following them around and reporting on what they do and say.
And this, folks, is how people spend five years writing a novel.
So well put, and so thought bending too.
So it will be five years, wow I need to find me a novel or two to read, while I wait -Heh!
Thank you. Let’s hope that I am exaggerating! I would rather get it done in another year — so far it has been about ten months.