First-Draft-Complete

Time to pop the cork on the bubbly. Last night I reached first-draft-complete on my work-in-progress, Changeling. Finally!

Since this is the first time I've mentioned Changeling here on this blog, here's the (admittedly rough) story blurb:

Siobhan Miller is a young girl of fifteen, a sophomore in a rural Tennessee high school, and a Faerie. For when she reached puberty, Siobhan went through a shocking physical transformation that revealed her to be one of the fae of old Irish folklore. It's difficult enough fitting in at a new school, meeting boys, making new friends, and dealing with the 'popular girls' clique, while hiding her differences behind the illusion power that is part of her fae heritage. But after these long centuries, the land of Faerie is growing closer once again, and its magic is returning to our world. And with that return, creatures and abilities long thought to be myths are awakening, and 'things' are beginning to come over from the otherside. Siobhan is forced to deal with the consequences, before they can expose her secret to the rest of the world.

 Now, it's not a readable first draft, by any measure. This is my first completed story, and it was definitely a learn-as-I-go experience. I owe a big debt to all the great people over at Critique Circle, who tore to shreds effectively critted the chapters I posted there. I learned a lot from the guys and gals there. Still learning, too.

Now for the bad news. Changeling is enormous. 135K words. It has plot dead-ends. The writing varies in quality from chapter to chapter. It needs lots of work.

None of which was unexpected. I'm not discouraged at all. I knew going in that I didn't know what I was doing, so I followed some sage advice, and gave myself permission to write badly... for the first draft. Otherwise, as in my past, it would have never gotten written.

So now I go over it with a weed whacker (might need a heavy-duty brush mower), trim out the wordiness many of you have ragged on me, I mean, given me thoughtful advice about. Straighten out the plot. Get rid of superfluous plot threads. Work on fleshing out some of the details. Apply more of the lessons from those annoying excellent crits.

I love the story world and the characters I've created. I feel confident that, with effort, patience, and the lessons I've learned/am learning, Changeling will grow up to be an enjoyable, readable story.