I was digging through a tote under my bed this past Saturday. I had come upstairs for a new notebook and found some other notebooks that had already been written in. So I did what any author would do and flipped through my ancient notebooks with the yellowing pages.
I found what I think might be my very first attempt at The Curse Fulfilled.
(I realize that those who haven’t known me for very long actually have no idea what The Curse Fulfilled is. It was my first NaNo novel (2011), which I queried agents with just this past May. It’s about a 12-year-old boy named Drake who finds out he’s cursed and has been turning into a dragon every night since his twelfth birthday.)
So many things changed during these first attempts. Drake had a different name. He was an orphan. I wrote in a third person omniscient that broke the fourth wall.
I’ve come pretty far since I wrote this bit in October 2011. But I still love this story to pieces.
Do you guys still have very first attempts of writing? Or of anything? Do they make you sentimental or make you cringe?
DFTBA.
Spiral-Bound 
Yep. I have ’em. Stacks of old notebooks and a few folders of old papers. A few original signed copies of stapled “books”… 🙂
They make me sentimental AND make me cringe!
🙂
I know! I’m very sentimental about TCF drafts but at the same time…
At the same time, very much cringe-worthy material, yes?
Yes.
I saved a lot of my first attempts. They make me blush with embarrassment, but I still like to read them sometimes for fun. I believe every Author needs to keep one first attempt.
Yes! I agree.
OOOOOH.
YOU HAVE A NEW STORY.
A shiny, shiny new story. With a cool name.
TELL US MORE.
Crumpets! I’ve been discovered! 😉
Not yet, my dear, not yet. This is a desperate attempt to be free from instinct and peer pressure and guilt from not writing. Not even my mother knows what I’m currently writing. But perhaps later I shall divulge secrets… Like a Pinterest board for you to ponder over. 😛
But yes, it is shiny!!! Shiny plot bunny!
Well, if you put a word meter on your blog, even hiding on the bottom…
*nods* But of course, by all means do that. YOU CAN DO IT, YOU CAN DO IT! I shall wait patiently for that Pinterest board…
Shiny shiny shiny! (My siblings use “sunny” as a noun that refers to a reflection of sunlight from a shiny object like a CD that can be moved around the room and chased…like this: “Oh, look, it’s a sunny! Where’s it coming from? Ooh, let me make it!”)
I know. I was kidding. 😉
Thank you! 🙂
(Aww!)
Oh, good. 😉
Indeed. 😉
But it’s going well, right? At least…so far, however long that may be?
I’m on page 3, so yes. 🙂
Yay! Yay! See, I told you you could do it!
(I need some better pep-talk phrases…)
Thank you. 🙂
(Don’t worry about it. We all do, I think.) 🙂
(Ah, but see? You just used one…)
(…Indeed.)
(I bet you didn’t even notice. You just do it all the time. 🙂 )
(You’re right, I didn’t notice. *blushing*)
(You’re very kind, Miss Robyn Hoode. *pretends not to notice your blushing*)
(Thank you for saying so. *hides face behind a fan*)
(*grins* That’s a pretty fan.)
(Thank you. Tempest got it for me.)
(Oooh, from where?)
(A place called Ambrosia. It’s a little similar to eastern Asia.)
(There once was a skunk named Ambrosia. Well, one in a book I read. Which is where I’m assuming your Ambrosia is…or simply imagination 😉 )
(An unpublished book. 😉 )
(That counts! And that’s what I guessed, anyway.)
(Indeed. Well done.)
(Uh, thanks. I think. Yeah. Anyway. Where were we? Oh, you being nice. Right.)
(Indeed.)
(And I’m going to go get ready for bed. So tired. Tata!)
(Good night! Sleep well!)
I had two novels that I can rightly call my first attempts… I hate looking back at them.
One was a poorly thought out and written Star Wars rip off. The other was a fairly unique elf fantasy story.
I have an odd mixture of pride and horror about them.
My worst first attempt I have to say was a star wars fanfic I wrote.
It was my first time ever typing a story out and the typos and grammatical errors… I never look at my old copy of it anymore.
Indeed. That odd mixture of pride and horror…
Does your mother read your blog?…maybe it’s not a secret anymore…
I think my mother does…
Aw, look at the old first draft. Somewhere I have the falling apart first “draft” (really a short story) of Lizzie Evans and the Black Cat Diamond all printed out on card stock and stuck together with jeweled brads. And I echo Amanda in that it makes me sentimental AND cringe. Cringe hard….
🙂
It seems we all have first drafts lying around. But I like the ones that make me sentimental and cringe instead of the ones that just make me cringe.
I sometimes find relics like this. I tried to write a Robin Hood retelling once. Worse, though, I did it in the style of Roger Lancelyn Greene.
I can’t do a style like that.
Besides, it doesn’t sell in the modern era. 😛
Ooh! I like Roger Lancelyn Greene’s Robin Hood!
Yeah, I imagine not. 😛
Ooh! I like Roger Lancelyn Greene’s Robin Hood!
Yeah, I imagine not. 😛
That particular style won’t sell as a modern author, though. 😛 It’s fallen out of favor after the Victorian era.
I figured.
Which is a pity, really. It works if you’re writing a historical chronicle…
Probably. 🙂
Yeah…
I’m trying something new. First person point of view… we’ll see how it works out.
Good luck.
Thanks. 🙂