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Hit 10k words on my novel draft last night and honestly I'm kinda bothered
I'm working on a dark fantasy novel set in Portland and I crossed 10,000 words after three weeks of writing. But everyone online acts like word count milestones are always a celebration, and for me it just felt stressful because I had to delete 4k of bad scenes right after. Has anyone else hit a big number and felt more frustrated than proud?
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morgan.mary5mo ago
True, I read somewhere that Stephen King says the first draft is just telling yourself the story, so deleting big chunks is basically part of the process. The 10k mark is just a number, and if you had to cut 4k of bad scenes, that's still progress because you figured out what didn't work. It's like you learned something that made the remaining 6k stronger, so the stress is just a sign you're editing your own work instead of pretending it's perfect.
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charlie_allen5mo ago
Ask what made those scenes bad in the first place. Like were they boring side plots that went nowhere, or did you just write them on a day when nothing clicked? I had a 3k chunk that was pure backstory dumping and cutting it felt like ripping out teeth but the chapter moved twice as fast after. Was it the pacing or the dialogue or maybe you realized a character was doing something they would never actually do? Because that's the real gold right there, figuring out your characters enough to know when they're acting fake.
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eva_thompson103mo ago
Well, "ripping out teeth" really got my attention. That's a rough way to put it but I know exactly what you mean. I had a 5k chunk in my own novel that I thought was brilliant until I realized the main character was basically acting like a completely different person for no good reason. Cutting it felt like I was losing a part of myself, not just the story. But you're right, the chapter did move faster and the whole thing made more sense after. It still stings though, doesn't it?
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