First Draft Land is Haunted

Yesterday I noticed many a spectre as I did something I normally consider a big no-no: I reread some of what I've written. The reason I mentally slap myself for doing so is simple. If I reread anything I've written as a first draft, my mood will immediately plummet due to just how ugly the writing is and for the next week, writing will be difficult as I force some amnesia on myself to forget about what I read. Luckily, Chapter One wasn't bad at all. The writing needed some polishing, but the action was tight. I was pretty happy.

Was. Until I realized that I had added some very rich, very cool, very vampire traits to Vlad that I'd somehow forgotten to keep in the nine chapters that follow. Huh.

How did that happen? How did I forget crucial detail during the rest of the book? After reading it, I could recall conversations with my husband where I'd droned on and on about including those things, playing with stereotypes, making Vlad fresh and involved and...well, somewhere between pages thirteen and fourteen I must have lost my mind and left out critically entertaining points.

The good news is that now that I've realized my mistake, I can start adding them again in these last three chapters. (Three? *checks her notes again* Can there be only three chapters left? Oh my, it seems there can. Getting close now, minions!) And the nine chapters that caught a bout of amnesia all on their own? Well, I can catch them up during revisions.

This is just further proof that Vlad's running things. I'm just cheating off his math test.