I am writing a first draft story that people are reading in its first draft form. This is good in that I get encouragement as I proceed; it’s not so good because I think of a new idea after the installment has gone out and I don’t quite know how to correct what I’ve just figured out.
For example, it occurred to me that the only way that Johanna and Sadie would be deeply affected immediately would be if they were related to Jacob, who has been accused on raping a white woman. Of course, the whole black community would be concerned about this, but to make the story more powerful I thought, “What if Johanna were Jacob’s mother? Then it makes much more sense that people in town might retaliate and this explains why the Colonel would feel a need to get Johanna and Sadie to a safer spot. So, I have made that adjustment. Now, I suppose if I can continue sharing this first draft story, then I could just add in italics at the top any new “discoveries” I’ve made that add tension to the story. That way the reader won’t be confused and I won’t have to worry about going the wrong direction in the story because I don’t want to confuse the reader…
I have some concern that I need to copyright these pages, particularly if I believe it will possibly grow into a full-fledged novel. I don’t think that’s very difficult, I just need to learn how to do that.
Also, the story is primarily dialogue in first draft. I am not spending lots of time describing surroundings or going into inner monologue. I will have regular points where the main character will ponder what has happened and decides what will happen next, but this is one way 1st draft differs. It is primarily getting the story down on the page and “coloring in” the details later. I suppose if readers understand this process then we’ll be fine.
The best way readers could help me besides encouragement would be to write any questions they have in the Comments Section. That way I can see where I need to elaborate more or fill in details that I might think are obvious.
Anyway, the idea of writing a first draft story and sharing is new to me, at least in this forum. I do this all the time in a writing group setting. I will continue cautiously to see if it can indeed be the right setting to share such an early draft of a piece of writing.
The jury is out on that, but I am open to seeing. I have some great support for my writing here and I would love to see if this might work as a method to move through a first draft of whatever form this story ends up taking.
For those of you who are encouraging this process, thank you. We’ll see how it goes.
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