Here we go...

2nd Draft manuscript... yikes.

I've already begun the revision process. Basically, I'm curating my scenes, making sure they have a function and purpose, and not just there as filler or fluff.

The first three chapters were garbage, but I've planned how to revise them. Hopefully they'll look good when I do fix them. After those chapters, the writing and the structure got better compared to the garbage, which somehow surprised me. I hope it still true on the next chapters. Really psyched on how everything will pan out.


My initial estimates of finishing this thing by March might not be feasible, but we'll see. Two days in already, and I've gone through 50 pages, but that's only reading it and creating the outline for the scenes. Actual edits have not happened yet. 

Anyway, I wanted to share to you guys how I organize my scene:

START--LOGLINE--Narrator talking about superhero origins.

Ezra IS BORED because the batteries in his Gameboy dies. He THINKS about climbing the tree in their backyard. Aries ASKS if he wants to play with his action figures and OFFERS his toy Wolverine.

Ezra WANTS TO CLIMB the tree because he had always wanted to. Ezra STARTS for the tree, BUT Aries tells him to stop.

SUCCESS--Ezra is climbing the tree, BUT as he goes further up, his foothold breaks under him.

Aries IS CONCERNED for his twin brother; Ezra IS AFRAID that he’ll land on Aries (clue on how their powers work). Ezra FALLS with his right arm outstretched. It BREAKS and then HEALS immediately. Aries IS CRYING. Ezra DISCOVERS that Aries’ arm is broken. The neighbors FIND the boys in this situation and TELLS Ezra to wake his mother up.

Ezra NEEDS TO WAKE his mother up, BUT Gracie is drunk, high or both. (SHOW the inside of the living room: bottles, pills, cigarettes). Ezra SHAKES and SCREAMS at her, BUT she’s barely stiring.

SUCCESS--Ezra SLAPS her awake.

END--VISUAL DESCRIPTION--Gracie freaks out and argues with the EMTs; the neighbor offers Gracie and Ezra a ride to the hospital; Ezra appears worried; Ezra scratches his arm.​

With Pen and Paper

After five months of working on the 2nd draft of my novel, I'm back in writing short stories. Fear not, I will pick the novel back up after a month or two has elapsed.

Last night, I was reminded of how much I love writing by hand. I've written about four pages on a yellow pad, and the words just flowed out as if I broke a spigot inside my brain. It was a meditative writing session, and I couldn't contain myself even as I write this entry. There is a huge difference between writing with ink and writing through a keyboard.


I had thought about buying a typewriter once, but I imagined that would be cumbersome and loud. Plus, I'm too cheap and lazy to maintain it. Instead of fantasizing about the clickity-clack and ding of a typewriter, I opted for pen and paper.

When I was a kid, I wrote everything with pen and paper: my stories, poems and some doodles that went at the back pages of my notebooks in school. Even with a computer at home, I still did my stories with ink until I started writing scripts. Those went on the computer. I remember downloading a program called Dramatica so I can start writing serious.

That's when longhand fell out in vogue for me. As I wrote more, I started to believe that writing by hand would be a waste of time because you have to transcribe what you wrote into a MS Word document. So the cycle continued by typing out words upon words upon words, sometimes feeling drained every session.

Recently, something just snapped in me. I thought about why I wrote, why I wanted to tell stories. This soul-searching led me back to those days in grade school and high school, drawing and writing stuff in the back of my notebook whenever I was bored in class. And so I returned to my creative roots and started writing with pen and paper again.

I had to relearn writing by hand since it looked like chicken scratch. But I'm making progress, and I think I'm getting better at it. Then again, I'm the only one who could decipher it. My 'e's look like 'c's and my 'r's look like 'n's. Still, I can tell them apart.

I wrote the first draft of my novel by hand, and I plan on continuing to do so. Some professional writers do so to this day: Quentin Tarantino, Neil Gaiman, Joe Hill, JK Rowling to name a few. Even though it's a slow process compared to typing it up, it's all about the immersion I experience whenever I put pen to paper.

Final word count: 89,737

I haven't given details about the novel's story, but here is the elevator pitch:

Twin brothers, who have the ability to transmit injuries to one another, fight crime in the belief that they are superheroes. But they soon find out why superheroes do not exist. The twin brothers must face The Purity Project, an old organization with the mission to preserve humanity and to cull mutants as soon as they're born.

So happy that the 2nd draft is finished, but I'm far from finished. The plan on the 3rd Draft is to tighten the scenes and the prose. Once the 3rd Draft is finished, I will send it out to publishers first, get my feet wet and have the door slam on my face. Rejection is part of the process, and I need some to temper my soul.

I'm giving myself a one-month break from the novel. In the meantime, I'm going to refill my well and complete two short stories.

Final word count on the 2nd Draft: 89,737.

I haven't given details about the novel's story, but here is the elevator pitch:

Twin brothers, who have the ability to transmit injuries to one another, fight crime in the belief that they are superheroes. But they soon find out why superheroes do not exist. The twin brothers must face The Purity Project, an old organization with the mission to preserve humanity and to cull mutants as soon as they're born.

So happy that the draft is finished, but I'm far from finished. The plan on the 3rd Draft is to tighten the scenes and the prose. Once the 3rd Draft is finished, I will send it out to publishers first, get my feet wet and have the door slam on my face. Rejection is part of the process, and I need some to temper my soul.

I'm giving myself a one-month break from the novel. In the meantime, I'm going to refill my well and complete two short stories.

Final word count on the 2nd Draft: 89,737.

I haven't given details about the novel's story, but here is the elevator pitch:

Twin brothers, who have the ability to transmit injuries to one another, fight crime in the belief that they are superheroes. But they soon find out why superheroes do not exist. The twin brothers must face The Purity Project, an old organization with the mission to preserve humanity and to cull mutants as soon as they're born.

So happy that the draft is finished, but I'm far from finished. The plan on the 3rd Draft is to tighten the scenes and the prose. Once the 3rd Draft is finished, I will send it out to publishers first, get my feet wet and have the door slam on my face. Rejection is part of the process, and I need some to temper my soul.

I'm giving myself a one-month break from the novel. In the meantime, I'm going to refill my well and complete two short stories.

Final word count on the 2nd Draft: 89,737.

I haven't given details about the novel's story, but here is the elevator pitch:

Twin brothers, who have the ability to transmit injuries to one another, fight crime in the belief that they are superheroes. But they soon find out why superheroes do not exist. The twin brothers must face The Purity Project, an old organization with the mission to preserve humanity and to cull mutants as soon as they're born.

So happy that the draft is finished, but I'm far from finished. The plan on the 3rd Draft is to tighten the scenes and the prose. Once the 3rd Draft is finished, I will send it out to publishers first, get my feet wet and have the door slam on my face. Rejection is part of the process, and I need some to temper my soul.

I'm giving myself a one-month break from the novel. In the meantime, I'm going to refill my well and complete two short stories.

Final word count on the 2nd Draft: 89,737.

I haven't given details about the novel's story, but here is the elevator pitch:

Twin brothers, who have the ability to transmit injuries to one another, fight crime in the belief that they are superheroes. But they soon find out why superheroes do not exist. The twin brothers must face The Purity Project, an old organization with the mission to preserve humanity and to cull mutants as soon as they're born.

So happy that the draft is finished, but I'm far from finished. The plan on the 3rd Draft is to tighten the scenes and the prose. Once the 3rd Draft is finished, I will send it out to publishers first, get my feet wet and have the door slam on my face. Rejection is part of the process, and I need some to temper my soul.

I'm giving myself a one-month break from the novel. In the meantime, I'm going to refill my well and complete two short stories.

Final word count on the 2nd Draft: 89,737.

I haven't given details about the novel's story, but here is the elevator pitch:

Twin brothers, who have the ability to transmit injuries to one another, fight crime in the belief that they are superheroes. But they soon find out why superheroes do not exist. The twin brothers must face The Purity Project, an old organization with the mission to preserve humanity and to cull mutants as soon as they're born.

So happy that the draft is finished, but I'm far from finished. The plan on the 3rd Draft is to tighten the scenes and the prose. Once the 3rd Draft is finished, I will send it out to publishers first, get my feet wet and have the door slam on my face. Rejection is part of the process, and I need some to temper my soul.

I'm giving myself a one-month break from the novel. In the meantime, I'm going to refill my well and complete two short stories.

Final word count on the 2nd Draft: 89,737.

I haven't given details about the novel's story, but here is the elevator pitch:

Twin brothers, who have the ability to transmit injuries to one another, fight crime in the belief that they are superheroes. But they soon find out why superheroes do not exist. The twin brothers must face The Purity Project, an old organization with the mission to preserve humanity and to cull mutants as soon as they're born.

So happy that the draft is finished, but I'm far from finished. The plan on the 3rd Draft is to tighten the scenes and the prose. Once the 3rd Draft is finished, I will send it out to publishers first, get my feet wet and have the door slam on my face. Rejection is part of the process, and I need some to temper my soul.

I'm giving myself a one-month break from the novel. In the meantime, I'm going to refill my well and complete two short stories.

Final word count on the 2nd Draft: 89,737.

I haven't given details about the novel's story, but here is the elevator pitch:

Twin brothers, who have the ability to transmit injuries to one another, fight crime in the belief that they are superheroes. But they soon find out why superheroes do not exist. The twin brothers must face The Purity Project, an old organization with the mission to preserve humanity and to cull mutants as soon as they're born.

So happy that the draft is finished, but I'm far from finished. The plan on the 3rd Draft is to tighten the scenes and the prose. Once the 3rd Draft is finished, I will send it out to publishers first, get my feet wet and have the door slam on my face. Rejection is part of the process, and I need some to temper my soul.

I'm giving myself a one-month break from the novel. In the meantime, I'm going to refill my well and complete two short stories.

76k and Counting

I'm at 76k words now, and it just entered Act III. I plan to finish the whole story by the end of November or early December.

I'm both excited and sad. Excited because I'm about to finish the 2nd draft. Sad because I'm going to enter the next phase which is structural edits and line edits. The whole journey leading up to the ending has been exhilarating. As authors, we vicariously live through our character's life, going through their joys and suffering. I don't want that to end...

With the few chapters ahead of me, I feel like I don't want to say goodbye. It's ridiculous since I know a second book is warranted (Volume I ends with a cliffhanger), but I just can't shake the feeling that I'd be sad to end this draft. I'd pick it up again after a month has elapsed. While I cool off from this project, I'll be writing more short stories to add to my submission circulation.

Write the bad sentence, then improve it

I don't think I'm alone in this, but I had a revelation on how to increase my word count per hour.

Now folks will say, "Jay! You shouldn't focus on word count. Quality over quantity. Let the story flow. More platitudes."

I get that, but there's room for improvement. So here's the revelation I wanted to share:

While writing, there are moments where you hesitate in writing the next sentence. You anticipate that it will suck balls and that it's stupid garbage. Because of this, you slow down. Sometimes, you start to write what you think is the proper sentence, but second-guess yourself so you hit backspace. Back and forth, back and forth--you're pulling your hair because you need to pass through this goddamn sentence!

Enough!

Instead of hesitating or even deleting the errant sentence, write it out and let it stay there. Once you've brought that sentence to light, write another that improves on it. For me, I separate the bad sentence from the improved one with a slash (/). Once you have the two sentences to compare, delete the bad one and move on. You can do three possible sentences, but no more than that--you don't want to get stuck writing and rewriting that damn sentence. Pick one and move on.

That's it. I anticipate that this works when you're writing the first draft or rewriting your manuscript. I believe this is efficient rather than moving your mouse or cursor and editing it within.

50k and Counting

I've hit the 50k mark! Hurray! I feel tingly, and I'm smiling like a pirate who just stumbled upon loads and loads of treasure.

I always thought 50k words was impossible. Well, not impossible; that would be an exaggeration. Maybe hard to reach or a gruesome crawl. I thought that writing 50k words would take six months or more. Nope. It took two months and two weeks to reach this goalpost.

Now, a few things I had picked up along the way.

Free writing--

This one's an amazing writing tool. Before, I only used free writing to get me out of writer's block in the middle of a writing session.

Now, I use free writing before I start my writing session. It gets my creative juices going, and it also breaks down my 'inner editor.' Even though I'm on the 2nd draft, I'm rewriting everything, which means I need to bring my 'inner creator' out rather than my 'inner editor.'

For those who don't know what free writing is, it's a writing exercise where just write down everything inside your head. It's stream of consciousness. While you are free writing, you are forbidden to hit the backspace and correct any typos. You just go on and on and on.

However, you need to set a time limit. Ten minutes is the max, and anything more than that is procrastination. Most of the time, I don't use all ten minutes. Usually I end my free writing exercise at the five minute mark.

The novel is moving pretty good, and I'm estimating that the word count could be around 100k. I'll probably do another blogpost when I reach 75k. Until then, I have to write the adventures and heartbreaks of my two protagonists.

The First and Second Draft

Started the 2nd draft of my novel on July 16. On August 11, the novel was at 20,000 words, and as of now, September 13, it's at 39,800 words.

It's strange. I began the 1st draft this year on January and finished it around April. When I started on the 2nd draft, I threw out everything except for the beginning and the end. The middle part is completely rewritten.

My 1st draft was written by the seat of my pants. That means I did not have an outline, a character sheet or a world building sheet to begin with. The only thing I began with was an idea for a short story that eventually turned into a novel.

The 1st draft was terrible: cliched, action packed, with little room for character introspection. On the 2nd draft, however, I fixed what was lacking and added some backstory to illuminate my characters.

The 2nd draft is now relying on an outline. I created an outline for my 2nd draft so I can steer the direction of the story and reinforce its structure.

Sometimes I wonder why I began the story without an outline. Surely, beginning with an outline would save me time from completely rewriting the 2nd draft! But I can't start a story with an outline. I had tried it once. I had an in depth outline to a story I named Powerless, and when the time came to actually write, I lost my enthusiasm.

In retrospect, I understood why. When I write, I don't want to know what's going to happen. I like to venture in a story without an idea of what the outcome might be. I'm a discovery writer.

But that's for the 1st draft. Once I was finished with my 1st draft, I created an outline to bolster my story and give more depth to my characters. I was in the editing/revising phase, so the outline was appropriate. I played in the 1st draft; now I'm working on the 2nd draft. Two hats of the writer.

I always thought that writing a novel was hard, but I'm finding out it's doable. As for publishing this book, that's debatable. It's my first novel and so it's going to stink. However, I won't see it as a waste if it doesn't get published. Think of it as a tuition fee--an expenditure of time and effort and loss of sleep.