745 Words!

Yeah! Thursday and Friday of this week I wrote approximately 745 words for my book. I am really happy about this because it has been almost three weeks since attending the SCBWI Western WA conference and I had yet to write a thing. I should have been motivated after the conference. Ready to write! Pumped! I think I have been scared. Feeling like I have to get it perfect. Well that isn't going to happen, and definitely not on the 1st draft!

There is a quote from Finding Forrester, spoken by Sean Connery's character. "You must write your first draft with your heart. You rewrite with your head. The first key to writing is... to write, not to think!" To me this means if you have a story to tell, just get it out. Quickly. After your 1st draft is done, the "head-writing" or revising and fine tuning will take your manuscript to the next level.

For the chapter I wrote today, I added a piece of the story that I had put in my query letter but not yet written. It was actually something that came to me while I was writing my query letter (that is the thing about writing a query letter for a query letter workshop at a conference when you haven't finished writing the manuscript yet - you have to make stuff up quick!) and it sounded so perfect so I went with it. Hoping it will pan out.

I am 7,500 words into my manuscript, which I am planning to have complete at around 14,000 to 16,000 words. It will feel great to get this 1st draft done. Can't wait!