the art of the shitty first draft
novels aren't written in a day (but are they in a month?)
I am working on a novel.
More specifically, I am working on the shitty first draft of a novel.
In the past, when I’ve tried to write long-form fiction, I’ve gotten caught in a cycle of self-editing while writing, which leaves me stuck on a single sentence for anywhere from minutes to days. It doesn’t matter how many of my creative writing professors told me to focus first on getting the words on the page, then on getting the words right—I have a terrible habit of mulling over syntax and diction ad nauseam. While this is, in my opinion, a useful skill during the poetry-writing process (part of the pleasure of writing poetry is, to me, the act of playing with the words until the elegant expression of my thoughts emerges), it is less helpful when trying to write a longer piece of work. This isn’t to say that fiction should lack elegance or pleasure—just that there is a different kind of pleasure in the act of writing a first draft, one that is more difficult to access when you’re caught up in word choice.
It is, in some ways, the pleasure of quantity over quality. Because a novel spans so many more words, scenes, narratives, it is vital to relish the quantity of words and pages. Quantity is not the only thing, not at all, but I’m trying to think of it as gathering the raw materials required to do the careful sculpting and carving one does during the revision process.
So, for the month of November, I am (unofficially) participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). I’m not engaging with their platform or community spaces—I just don’t want to—but I am taking on the same challenge: 50,000 words of a novel written in the month of November. I think the constraints of such a challenge will help me shift out of the quality mindset and focus for a short while on quantity.
You’ll hear from me for the next four Sundays with an update on my writing progress, what’s working and what isn’t, how I’m feeling about the overall process, and any other stray thoughts I have.
Each week, I’ll share the current total word count. As the benchmark: I didn’t write yesterday, and I haven’t written yet today, so in terms of word count, my first update is 331 words (written on November first). I will be writing today, so anything I write will be included in next week’s update.
After this personal challenge and my reporting on it is complete, I’ll be sharing an exciting update on the new shape Common Room will be taking for 2025 and beyond. (Spoiler: it involves my favorite creative collaborator—my darling husband, Jo.)