Monday, December 19, 2011

Riding the First Draft High

This past weekend was the most emotionally overwhelming of my entire writing life. (Which, fine, admittedly has only been a year long. But whatever.)

Nope! I'm not complaining, not at all. It was completely awesome.

See, I finished my first-pass edit of my second (!!!) novel, ONE, and sent it to my first-round CPs, biting my nails and breathing into a paper bag.

I'm not sure if it was just well-timed, or if my CPs have an extraordinary kindness of heart, but Chessie read it in less than 24 hours and Maggie did it in less than 48.

Which, on its own, would have been amazing. But, you guys: While they were reading? They LIVE FREAKING TWEETED ABOUT IT.

So Chessie let me know she was starting....
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(which made me hole up with twitter for the next 12 hours. Thank goodness it only took her that long to finish it.)

and so did Maggie...
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Then Maggie quoted...
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Then Chessie fell in love with the second lead (*SQUEEE*)
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Then Maggie hit Chapter 10, or "The Beginning of Act 2"
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Then Chessie went to Sam's Club....
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....came home, and sped through the rest of the book.....

Then she tweeted this.....
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....and I died.

THEN she tweeted this:
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....and I could not contain myself.

Maggie gushed over the ending too, making me freak out even more.....
Fullscreen capture 12182011 64150 PM.bmp
Fullscreen capture 12182011 64150 PM

And then Chess tweeted THIS
Fullscreen capture 12172011 20925 PM.bmp

And you guys KNOW how much I was worried about that...

...and so....YEAH.

Obviously this post is reflective of the near-manic state of the first-draft-initial-CP-read-through high I'm riding on.
But it feels soooo good. (It really truly is like a drug.)
And I know it will be crushed soon enough when the crits and revisions start rolling in.

So let's all just hold hands and grin like Cheshires for awhile, shall we, friends?

(Thank you.)

Please take a moment in the comments to tell me about YOUR experience with the First Draft High. You know, so that I don't feel quite so insane.

18 comments:

  1. ...omg THE PRESSURE IS ON *rushes back to WIP*

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  2. @Jessica Silva
    Go Jessica GO!!!! You can do it! It's so so SO worth it!!!!
    <3 Your Cheerleader <3

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  3. That's so awesome!!!!!!!!!
    Congrats and your CPs ROCK!

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  4. CONGRATS! So excited to read it! XOXOX

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  5. Okay so well you know MY experience with the first-draft high, since you WERE THERE. (Although now I might have to do a post about this, too.)

    Urgh. I need to go eat breakfast so I can start critting ONE.

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  6. Yayyyyyy for ONE! I'd been waiting to read it for so long, and it was so worth it!! (Okay, I didn't have to wait THAT long. I was just excited.) :) But now I feel like I should have done better than middle-of-the-night-exhausted tweeting, haha. Just wait until I crit...you'll get lots of tweets then! Woohoo!

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  7. @Cristina - Thank you so much! I know, I am the luckiest writer in the world.

    @Jean - I don't think I can talk to you anymore without weeping. You know, in the best way possible.

    @Chess - Yeah, I know. This weekend tore me up.

    @Maggie - My love for you knows no bounds. And middle-of-the-night exhausted tweeting is your MO. It's how we like you best. <3

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  8. How exciting!!! That is so great that you have such encouraging CP's. I hope your first draft high lasts through the revisions (ha!). Good luck! Also, ONE sounds awesome :)

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  9. @Amanda Olivieri

    My CPs are the BEST. I'm sure I'll be sufficiently morose with first round revisions, then go through another high when Gina and Heidi read, then have another low...then there will be querying, which will take me even lower...then maybe hopefully a req, which will shoot me up to the moon....and, well, you know how the rollercoaster goes. :)#mixedmetaphorsftw

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  10. It's been so long since I had a first draft high, lol! I'm glad you have such wonderful CPs! They truly make all the difference in the world when you're writing.

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  11. Congratulations! :) I'm so excited for your book.

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  12. I just got my first shipper, so I'm feeling pretty good too!

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  13. @ladonna - THANK YOU!!!!

    @Melissa - I know, I actually think this is the first first draft I've ever had that is decent enough to warrant one. :) My CPs are incredible - and this is only HALF of them! So so luck.

    @Sarah - Thanks!

    @Miss Cole - First Shipper? Like someone is obsessed with your characters? That rules.

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  14. YAY! Congrats on a euphoric finish and awesome CP feedback!

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  15. lol I've never had first draft high. the first draft of my current WIP was novella-lengthed and I sent it to my CP as a "do you think this could work as a book?" the answer was yes, but there was a lot of "WTF Jessie?" and "UHH this needs to be expanded. HOW did we get here??" so. not much high there. and I killed my own highs with draft 2 and draft 3. also haven't sent anything to any CPs for months, besides a query or rewritten first chapter here and there. hopefully when I send out draft 4 I'll get some euphoria. FINALLY.

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  16. Anybody with as many fans as you've already got, Leigh Ann, totally n' unequivocally RAWKS!!

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