I spent around four hours yesterday drafting chapter 2. It’s not done yet. In the last log, I was organizing my original raw ideas doc — 68k words, whittled down to 64k. After I posted that entry, I skimmed the rest and got some quick wins cutting a lot of the back-and-forth between me and the AI: discussion of options that have since been solidified. It felt good to trim the fat.
This weekend I felt confident enough to get back to actual drafting. And I set a goal for myself: draft one scene per month. Yes, just one scene.
Part of what gave me permission to think this way was a James Clear interview I was watching. Steven Bartlett talks about making the first step embarrassingly small.
I remember Jordan Peterson talking about his some of his clinical patients and referring to one in particular who was in a room full of junk and couldn’t leave the room because of a certain fear and certain psychological problems he had. And Jordan saying that Day one they just brought the Hoover into the room and that was it. Day two they plugged the Hoover in and that was it. And then by day like 30 the guy is out of the room, the room is clean and he’s walking around outside for the first time in months or years.
And he goes on to say that the reason why people don’t get started is because the first step is so embarrassing. People think that it’s not worth it or that it’s like shameful to do. It’s like almost like patronizingly embarrassing. And I’ve always kept that in mind since then and from your work as well that — assume the first steps are like embarrassingly small.
The goal isn’t massive output, it’s consistency. And if embarrassingly small is what keeps me in attendance, then embarrassingly small is perfect.
Researching George R.R. Martin’s process was also what led me here, it’s what finally gave me the permission to take my time and write how I want to write.
The low bar motivates me. Especially with how I like to work — cycling between planning, drafting, planning again, drafting again. I tried setting a chapter a month as my original goal, but I prefer reading long chapters, so I want to write long chapters, and that deadline just wasn’t workable.
I’m also very analytical. I question everything I write. Is this working? Do I have the right information? How do I handle multiple threads? Writing emotions don’t come easily to me either (hence sci-fi, lol) — but the stories that draw me in are emotional, so I need time to actually bring the emotional chords into the work as well.
Why set any deadline at all? Why not just plan until I’m done, then draft?
Because when I’m purely in planning mode, I barely pin anything down. I can think of too many ways the story can go. Forcing myself to lay down one brick solidifies things. And the small size of the brick means I can actually place it — and change it later if I need to.
Switching between planning and drafting gives me the freedom to keep exploring, add texture, feel more confident before the next brick goes down. Some scenes are complicated — touching on history, threading multiple storylines. The small monthly goal gives me breathing room to do them justice.
If there’s no bar at all, I don’t move forward. So I’d rather have a small, achievable deadline to keep me going. And if I finish early? I feel good. I start the next scene. I get a head start.
Yesterday was going well. Got through two scenes. Feeling confident, I thought maybe I could finish the whole chapter this weekend — but I think I’ve burnt myself out on that front. Temporarily. I already know the remedy: go back to organizing notes for a bit, and I’ll be fine.
Before I do that, though — a few gains worth naming:
- Finally got the look of the captured predator set
- Got the order of scenes in chapter 2 feeling right — weaved in the 1st scene from the original draft into the last scene of current draft and it lands perfectly
- Finally understand the major emotional point I wanted to make
- Started linking up to official character, location and species pages/databases on my Notion storyboard
- Filled up a bit more of the images database
Chapter 2 sits at 7.2k words right now. Some of that will probably get cut once I work through the last two scenes, and I’m okay with that. I love long chapters, but I think emotional impact has to come first. Only put down what counts.
I’m just gonna hang out in the world I created today. Good times ahead.
The chapter will have to wait until next weekend (or maybe the weekend after that…). This is a long game, and I want to play it right.
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