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#IWSG Controversial Topics and First Draft Angst


Time for the Insecure Writers Support Group, when we vent our troubles and encourage each other in this crazy thing called writing. I appreciate Alex Cavanaugh for his brainchild! Please join us if you dare.


How's your work-in-progress coming along? I started writing the sequel to my college volleyball romance Blocked. This one's titled Aced, and features the romance between a 24-year-old Mexican American med student and a 22-year-old African-American volleyball star.

I'm rather conflict averse, but I find myself exploring some controversial topics in these novels. Blocked battles political differences, and Aced explores racial differences. Though I feel uncomfortable with conflict, discussing opposing points of view can be an enlightening experience in real life. I hope to offer a balanced take on touchy subjects in my writing.

Does your first draft feel like utter crap sometimes? I try to trudge through but writing can feel so difficult some days!

Congrats to my pub sister Debra Anastasia for the success of her crazy-ass comedy Fire Down Below! She has the wildest, dirtiest sense of whack ball humor!


Comments

Nicki Elson said…
First drafting is so haaard - that blank page is intimidating. But knowing I can and will change so much on following drafts helps me to get it out. I have NO idea how guys like Hemingway & Fitzgerald did it without word processors. I can't imagine the stacks and stacks of paper & I'd have gone through.

Debra cracks me up!
Anonymous said…
My first draft is crap. Aren't they all? Characters are all over the place and things keep changing but that's a first draft for ya! Hopefully it'll improve on the second, third and forth draft. The trick is not to be deterred... it shall come together!!! BTW... that guy on the Blocked cover should be illegal. Damn!
I'm in the editing stage of a project I'll be releasing under a new pen name - so that's exciting. And I have a book releasing next week (squee!) and another in June (double squee). Problem is, I got nothing going for after that. Time to get busy writing!

Good luck with Aced. LOVE the cover for Blocked. Holy Abs Batman.
I hate doing the first drafts. I like it when I finish and I have something to work with.
My tackling of those differences has been very subtle in my books.
F. Stone said…
My first draft is rough but I enjoy it more than writing the subsequent drafts. During the first draft, I'm filled with incredible energy, almost like I'm drowning is visions and under the control of the muse's passion. It's a time of magical discovery. However, at the same time, I'm thinking about what I'll do when the editing begins. Sometimes I can't wait to finish the first draft and I'll go back and massage some minor point. It's chaotic, spontaneous, fascinating to see the story evolve to something grander than I had initially imagined.
Tanya Miranda said…
My first drafts suck. Always. Period. The first few revisions of my first drafts still suck, so I keep on. Before I know it, one version stands out and sings to me like a church chorus under heavenly lights.

I once saw a friend of mine paint a scenery in three days. Day one, after two hours, the painting looked like it could have been painted by a kindergartner. Day two, another two hours, looked better but she wasn't quite there yet. Day three, last two hours, the painting looked amazing.

Art is done with iterations. For some more than other, but iterations nonetheless. Even the greatest writers wrote crappy first drafts. Makes me feel better. :-)
You've started writing the sequel to Blocked. YAY!
Jennifer Lane said…
Thanks for stopping by, Chanpreet! Yep, I've written five chapters of Aced and hope to release it by the end of the year if all goes well.