Man, my first chapter is all tell not show. I have to fix this. I suppose that’s the beauty of first drafts, you find out what’s wrong with everything. It’s amazing to me how freaking hard it is to show not tell. It’s like all I want to do is verbally throw up all the ideas in my head and just get them on paper.

First drafts have these strange stages.

First, you’re all like okay, just barf it all up.

Second, you think, this barf is amazing.

Third, you realize it’s still barf and nothing you wrote is good.

Fourth, you think there’s a glimmer of hope in that goop.

Fifth stage, no, you’re definitely not good.

Sixth stage, you’ve given it some time to ferment and think you can salvage some of it.

Seventh stage, okay, you for sure have some nuggets in here.

Eighth stage, you’re crying because you can’t believe you’ve written so much and it never seems to end.

The ninth stage is when you’ve managed to really carve something out and you can see the light.

The tenth stage is not for beginners. It’s where you sit down and bleed at they keyboard and mildly hallucinate that you’re good.

Don’t think this is all roses. No, you for sure have some cringy parts, but there’s hope.

Hope is the most dangerous part, but sometimes it’s the only way to fuel any writing progress.