The Second Draft Killer

It'll be the death of me...

First draft is finished. The weight of it was released off my shoulders and I smiled outrageously at the prospect of finally seeing the reality of being an author. 

Five Seconds Later...

I realized the first draft was missing imperative information. Scenes needed to be put in, details needed to be written, the plot needed to be a bigger punch in the gut. A second draft needed to be written. 

And this is about the moment I broke. 

Oh. No. Someone please rescue me under the stacking list of why my first draft isn't good enough. Drag me away from the red pens that have completely taken residence on top of my papers, so much so that they're growing words of their own. Force me to tell myself, "THIS IS GREAT. YOU ARE GREAT. IT WILL ALL BE WORTH IT!" Because right now, that light I saw? Yeah, that train has hit me full force.

Rant End.

Okay, now that I've got my complain in to the writing Gods, here's the real scoop:

I finished my first draft and started scouring through my second. Writing the second draft all the way through will probably take until January, but I'm looking forward to it finally being done. I'm extremely confident in my story, my characters and most of all my ability. Even in times of absolute writers despair I still feel like I'm just being silly. No one has ever accused me of lacking confidence. 

I scouted for editors, and if you were at all curious, they are not cheap. But I know they are a necessity and after seeing a sample, I've absolutely fallen in love with the idea of having one. It's probably one of the coolest things I've come across in the writing world. Needless to say I'm in the talking stage of getting my husband to see the awesomeness that is editing and why it's worth the $. I think he may be warming up to it, especially since I've promised him riches with my best selling novel :)

Here's where I'm going to be brutally honest for a moment, so proceed with caution. Most likely you will not agree with me:

I've approached every task in life with the same attitude: Envision the best possible scenario, the one that you're striving for ultimately, no matter how impossible it seems and then just do it. 

I sound crazy, huh?

But seriously, if you go into anything, and I mean anything, thinking you're going to fail. You will. The only person who knows your value, your level of hard work, your dreams is you. So the only one who really needs to believe, is you. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you can dream and not have to do any hard work. Oh, no. There's never a shortage of hard work when doing anything that's worth it. 

What I am saying is that no one else has time to think you're worth it. 

Sales 101- for those who have never been in a sales position- if you can't sell your product, no one will buy it. You have to believe in what you're trying to get someone else to buy. You have to be ready to look them directly in the face and say, "You cannot go another day without this because it is going to be BIG. It is the best thing that has ever happened to anyone ever." Because if you hesitate even a little bit? The customer hesitates. Second thoughts take over each of you. And even if at that point they still buy, the entire time they have it they'll wonder if it was worth it. Never, and I mean EVER, let the reason someone has doubt be because of you.

So as unrealistic as I may sound. However conceded or overly confident. At the end of it all I know that I did everything I could to get myself there. I know that in no way did I self sabotage. 

But just a side note, if you put the work in and you always sound confident (even when you don't feel that way) I've never really heard of anyone not succeeding. 

Success is a state of mind.  

Be the Sheppard, not the lamb.