I can still remember sitting at my desk at the end of the upstairs hall to write my very first novel. It’s hard to believe that was already ten years ago! I’ve participated in NaNoWriMo every year since then and even a few Camp NaNos. Each November a new story came to life on my computer, but rarely have I ever even looked at them again after validating my word count.
Hopefully they’ve aged enough by now, and what better time than my 10th Nanoversary to return to my old fifty-thousand-word stories. Several of my computers have crashed since then, so I was worried I wouldn’t find all of them, but digging around in my old backups, I found my very first draft from NaNoWriMo 2007.
He knew the Timeway would be just of the path to the right not far ahead. After a while he reached the point he had seen and he recognized it immediately even though it didn’t look much different from the rest of the path. He turned aside and walked of the path. After a few moments Victor saw it in person. The Timeway was a large stone archway with a faint blue light that looked like the surface of water stretched across it. It was standing strong even though the keystone was missing. Victor approached it cautiously and stared through the opening of it. He saw the woods behind the Timeway, but the trees looked older and the moss was thicker. Victor knew what he had to do and without further hesitation he walked in through the Timeway.
Ouch… not so good.
But I wouldn’t be a writer today if it weren’t for that first novel draft, and after such a start, I could only improve.
Do you have any old drafts that have been waiting patiently on a shelf or hard drive? Maybe it’s time to dust them off and have a look, if not to make something of them, at least to see some proof of how far you’ve come. Early work is nothing to be ashamed of, it’s inspiring.
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