Write Club report: First story drafted!
Today was a great day! I reached an important milestone in my Write Club journey and completed the first draft of the first of 8 stories I will write during the 16 weeks. I realize it may not sound like an enormous achievement, but this is one of my longer stories.
For a little perspective, my typical stories for Steemit are about 750-1,500 words. That's 1-2 pages of writing. (For some examples, see the list of my Steemit short stories on my intro post.) The requirement for Write Club stories is 1,500 to 7,000, which means the range is from about 2 pages to about 14 pages. My first story is over 6,000 words - about 13 pages. But it's fun and readable, I think!
Image credit: Pixabay
What's next?
Well, when I say drafted, that means that the basic story is in place. It has a beginning, a middle, an end, and a storyline with hopefully interesting, complex characters. Now I'm letting it rest for a bit until tomorrow, when I will look at it with hopefully fresh eyes and begin the editing process. I expect that to take a good chunk of hours tomorrow (thank goodness it's the weekend), followed by a rest and another edit on Monday.
And then the peer editing cycle begins. The 8 of us will read each other's stories, and there's an editing process where everyone's story will be critiqued by at least a few other writers.
I know what you're thinking. Why does writing and editing a story take so long? Well, it depends on a number of factors, including the length and complexity of the story. And in my case, I have to work my writing around my full-time job and other commitments. But in general, if you have a fairly lengthy and complex story (which I do), and if you want it to be polished enough to submit to literary magazines at the end of it all (which I do), the process of writing, editing, and polishing a story can be very involved indeed!
Thanks for reading. If you want to know more about Write Club, click the #writeclub tag.
If you are a writer seeking community and support, you can find editors to help you at The Writers’ Block on Discord.
Writing stories of that length is no easy task. Especially when we get so used to the regular Steemit length of approx 1000-1500 words. I too have found these to be the ideal length, given attention spans, and competing interests. I wrote a couple of longer stories last year, but broke them up into posts of that lengths. But it is hard work. i can understand why it takes the time it takes. Particularly with a full time job and other commitments.
Editing is the big time killer. And it needs to be done right, doesn't it. And I am pointing the finger squarely at myself right now!
I also feel those fingers pointed at me... It's great to be surrounded by people like @jayna who take things serious. No time to slack! On to writing & editing!
Yes I agree. The writing groups at discord are helping me focus on writing issues beyond just writing down words. And I keep an eye on the wonderful @jayna's work as she does have insight in this area. But like you say, no time to slack (echoed by my internal editor...)
Oh hi @naquoya and @nobyeni. Thank you for the support and conversation. It’s lovely that we all inspire one another. I firmly believe that the collective energy we are building around writing practice is going to benefit us all, and help those of us who are indeed serious about the craft to take it to the next level. I am cheering you on!
Writing can be a solitary exercise, and a part of me loves that about it. But that can also present a problem, as we need others around us to assist. Whether it be advice, critiques, editing, or camaraderie, having others around is needed. Trying to create a regular habit of hanging out at the Discord group more often.
PS - I am cheering you on too.
I think it's very motivating to have a community. It may be what was lacking in my years of hiatus away from writing. Hanging around with like-minded people, in addition to getting support and critiques, is just wonderful. It makes it feel worthwhile.
I know it was certainly lacking in any writing attempts I made prior to arriving here at Steemit. And even here in the early days. I can say with all certainty that my writing has improved over the last 9 months (the second half of my time here) as a result of the developing community aspect. Especially the Discord groups.
Well your posts are certainly engaging and readable and interesting! I don't know what your writing was like before, but I'm so enjoying reading your travel stories. You have a really nice writing style.
Good job!! Now we just have to survive editing and critiquing and we’re home free (till we have to write another story :p )
Yes! (Queue Rocky song.)