Writing Diary #15- Finishing Another First Draft!!

Side note: All previous writing diaries are linked in my Personal Writing page which can be found on the bar at the top of this blog. 

It's always such an accomplishment to finally finish a first draft and I'm so happy for getting through it! In total, this is the third first draft I've ever completed (if you count my Nanowrimo Novel last year) and it's definitely the one I'm most proud of.
My first novel which I wrote back in 2016 was my first ever go at writing a novel... which explains why it was so terrible. That first project only took me around eight months to finish which was significantly quicker than the time it took me to write this one. However, this one is a lot better so I don't mind that it took me longer. My first novel came in at roughly 130,000 words so.... it was long even though it had no character development or interesting plot points whatsoever. Go figure.

My second first draft was my Nanowrimo novel that I wrote in November 2017- actually in the middle of writing my current work in progress. My Nano novel is actually a prequel novel to my current works so it was a lot of fun delving into the past of a certain character and it actually helped me expand my main story as well. This novel came in at around 50,000 words which is significantly shorter but it only took a month so...
And finally, my third first draft- the story I've just finished- took me about 13 months but I obviously took a break during this time to plan and complete Nanowrimo. It's come in at around 112,000 words which will definitely get bigger because there are a few things I know I still need to add.
It's such a relief to finally have the first draft finished. Even though it's only the skeleton of the story, it'll be so much easier to move on from now. I have a nice hefty to-do list to sort through, changes and additions that I know I need to make. Once I go through all of these, I'll read the story in its entirety and makes notes as I go along about what works and what doesn't. And then... I'll no doubt have a brand new never-ending list of things that need changing. Fun times to come!
While I absolutely hate editing and think that it's the bane of my existence, I'm actually looking forward to editing this first draft because I have such a huge passion for the story and the characters and I want to improve it as much as I can.
I also want to plan and outline books 2 and 3 because what I'm working on is a series which... sounds a little ambitious but I'm just gonna go with it. Sure, I should work on getting one book written and published before planning the sequels but the story I have in my head can't fit into one single book and I think it's okay to be a bit ambitious every once in a while. Go big or go home, am I right?
Plus, the summer holidays are almost upon us so I'll have plenty of time to get lots and lots done when I'm actually supposed to be revising or socialising. Priorities, people!

Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment your thoughts. Stay amazing!
Chloe