Writing Diary #1 - The Beginning

As you may or may not know, I am currently writing the first draft of my first ever book.
I’ve decided pretty late in the game that I want to create a writing diary... thing. Basically. I thought it would be nice to track my progress as I write my first novel (oh, that sounds so cool, doesn’t it?) Because I’m a very forward-thinking person that loves looking back at memories, I thought that this would be the perfect way to look back at my experience of writing this book.
I started planning this book and writing random snippets in December 2015 and began properly writing the first draft in January 2016. As you know, it’s July now so a lot has considerably been done. I’ve written a large chunk of the book and am at 72,000 ish words which is an amazing achievement for me.

As we’re starting this diary late, I’ll get you up to track on how I’m doing. (I know this looks unbelievably long but they won’t all be this long-winded).
The beginning, as they always are, was very hard and it took me a long time to get into the natural process of writing everyday. I try and write over 400+ words a day which gets a decent amount done each week/month.
The first chunk of the book felt really slow for me- as I knew it would- because it takes ages to set up the whole plot and introduce all the characters. You need to establish a routine before breaking that with the twists. At the beginning, all I’ve really wanted to do was write the ending and all the dramatic parts but I’ve refrained from doing that- only occasionally allowing myself to right a ‘random snippet’ if an idea is too overwhelming in my head.
At this point in the book, I’m getting super excited. I’m finally getting to the action, dramatic and gripping scenes! Things are definitely flowing nicely now and I’m so proud for even getting this far as I’ve never finished a book before. It’s truly such a wonderful experience.
Yes, there are times when I don’t want to write, long to give up, and simply can’t write a decent word but I’m happy that I’ve persevered and am on my way to finishing the first draft this year.
One thing I've found interesting when writing this is how much I prefer writing the 'villain's' character. When writing in the 'hero's' perspective it's easy to get caught up in the fact that they have to be perfect- you want the audience to love them. With the evil character, there is a freedom that allows you to write whatever you want. They can be evil, sassy and downright horrific and it doesn't matter- the audience doesn't have to like them.

Anyway, I’m so excited and will feel a massive accomplishment when finishing the first draft. Thank you for reading through all this! See you soon,
Chloe.