First Drafts

So, I have a first draft of Vigilante. It came in on the right number of pages and hangs together pretty well. But, as they say, the first draft of everything is shit. So, with that in mind I am now on to the second draft. Adding here and there, cutting, adding definition to the characters, creating scenes, moving them around... but mostly adding.

Writing is full of self-doubt. Right now I feel like the whole thing won't work. It's too long, it's muddled, the characters are bland and all those other niggling little voices that chirp away in your mind and diminish the love you once had for a favourite child. The only way out is through and it beats digging ditches for a living.

The problem is that you never know whether what you've written is any good or not. I mean, how can you tell. You know the story works on some level, some of the characters have their own voice, you can hit the right story beats but will it work? I'm about half way through my second draft. Writing is rewriting and just like someone building their own home hopes that it'll turn out how they imagined it when they drew up the blueprints, you just don't know whether it'll keep you dry when it rains.

Onwards and upwards.