The progress on the first book is that I’m about 3/4 of the way through the first draft. Then on to revisioning into the second draft. I’ve been a little confused by the different suggestions I read about whether to finish the book before you submit a proposal to an agent or submit a proposal first. It’s kind of hard to write a few chapters and edit them so they are good enough for submission without writing the rest of the book.
I’d really like to finish the first draft to get an idea of how to better do a revision. I’m not really an organized writer by nature, so although I have a pretty firm outline of the book, I still don’t know if that’s exactly what I’m going to write. I’m not one of those writers who wants to submit a first draft. I’m pretty horrified at the idea of anyone reading it in the current state. I have been following the advice from many writers to just get down the first draft without worrying about editing or word choice. That should come in the second draft phase. I first heard that suggestion from one of the panelists at the YA Lit writer’s panel at Dragon*Con, and I have been trying hard to banish my internal editor in this first phase. River Writers has been helping me with that.
Hopefully soon I will be onto the second draft, which will be something I am more apt to let other people read.
