A Confession of My Sins

Today is the second of the July. We're past the halfway mark of the year as well as the first of two Camp NaNoWriMo's. You can follow the link to learn more, if you'd like.

Anyway! I have, in fact, completed my first ever manuscript thanks to Camp. Please hold your congratulatory applause, however, because I have some things to confess.

It's common knowledge that no first draft is ever perfect, and I can now substantiate that idea with my own experience. Here are some of the awful things I've found so far in the re-reading of my "masterpiece":


  • Adverbs These, as any experienced writer will tell you, are basically the bed bugs of writing. They're hard to get rid of and they just seem to multiply forever. Before you know it, your whole house is infested by creepy little critters. As I tried my best to pump out at least 2k words a day, I found these dastardly fellows an easy out. You can put plenty of adverbs in a sentence without worrying as much about structure. It wasn't aesthetically pleasing - but it got my word count up.
  • Purple Prose Similar to the previous sin, this one is just more unnecessary language. Need an extra page? Wax harmonic on the virtues of the door handle! Adjectives, unreasonably complex sentence structure and some classical music may win poetry contests, but it offers little for decent prose. There are plenty of pages in my manuscript that I'll be sacrificing to the gods of Purple.
  • Skipping the Introduction This is probably the worst mistake I've made. I spent perhaps a paragraph setting the stage before jumping the gun and right into the story. Unfortunately, this means a rushed opening and zero sympathy for the main character. Fortunately, it gives me something to add to make up for all of the sludge I'll be removing later!

This list is by no means complete. I've only read about 12 pages into the 150 I have and I'm certain to unearth more skeletons. The point I suppose I'm trying to make is that I'm new. I'm new and I know that the first draft will always be the worst - but I also know where my sins are and how to repent. This, I hope, will give me better drafts in the future of a readable nature.

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