Only 2,000 today in my main WIP. Discouraging but okay because I'm still on track to finish with 85,000 words by the end of the month. If my characters behave and stick to the script I'll have a hideous looking first draft ready to been slashed and burned February 1st.
First drafts are not like babies, they don't come out cute. Well, okay, babies aren't super cute in the first five minutes of life either but babies get cute pretty fast. Drafts of stories don't. In fact, I don't have proof they ever get cute.
I worry about that too. I'm afraid I'll never be happy enough with something that I write that I'll willingly send it out. I'm a recovering perfectionist, I always think things could be better. That's why I have friends and Critters, they have promised to wrestle the finished manuscript out of my hand and bribe me with cookies to get the query letters written.
It will get done.
One of my "new" Critters (read: person who hasn't seen the previous draft) compared my main WIP to Patricia Briggs "Blood Bound". I haven't read that book, I don't write urban fantasy, but I'm flattered that she thinks I have the tone of a published author.
You can find a sample chapter here: http://www.hurog.com/books/bloodboundChapter.shtml on Ms. Briggs website.
It's exciting to know that there is a market for my style and voice. Although now I can worry that Ms. Briggs is taking up all of it. Ah, well. The present WIP is a science fantasy cop book. Not hardboiled crime noir (that' another project) but a fun run through the galaxy chasing some nasty drug dealers and ducking some unwelcome ghosts (not literally on the ghosts though- again- that's another book).
At this point I'm not wildly happy with the book. It's, well, it's a first draft all over the place. If I can just get the the end without erasing my hard drive the book has potential to become a finished draft! Huzzah!
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