John T. Schramm

Novel Word Count: 16,808

Reading now: The Lincoln Lawyer - Mr. Michael Connelly
Listening to: Dark Side Of The Moon (one of the best albums ever recorded)

In my personal fiction journal, I occasionally write about writing. I title these entries "On Writing" in honor of the Stephen King book of the same name.

I went to my monthly writer's group last night. There were only two of us, but I got some really good feedback on two of my chapters. Thanks, Jenny!

In addition to critiquing each other's work, we also talk about the ragged journey of writing a novel, and one of the topics we touched on was discussed in the blogosphere. I found it on Lee Goldberg's blog. He found it on Ed Gorman's blog. Ed wrote about the advice he received from Max Allan Collins. Please follow the links for the whole story and some good reading, but here is the part that spoke to me:

"He gave me the single most useful piece of writing advice I've ever ever received. Don't look back. Finish the first draft straight through and then go back and do whatever needs to be done in the revisions."

It's exactly what Jenny and I were discussing. No matter what, you have to plow through and finish that first draft. And then go back and take out all the stuff that is not the story. Only then will you know what doesn't belong and what needs to change.