Hit 10,000 words on my messy novel draft, feels weirdly good
Ive been grinding on this fantasy book for about 8 months now and yesterday I crossed 10,000 words. Its not good, like at all. My main character literally walks into the same tavern twice in one scene and I forgot to change the weather between chapters. But I heard someone in a coffee shop say that first drafts are just you telling yourself the story, so you can figure out what happens. That stuck with me because I keep trying to edit while I write and it kills my pace. So I set a rule to never scroll back, just push forward. Now Im at 10,240 words and I have no clue if any of it works. Has anyone else hit a word count milestone with a draft that feels totally broken, or is it just me?
Wait, your main character walks into the same tavern twice in one scene? How does that even happen without you noticing? Like does he leave and come back in the same paragraph or is there a whole chunk of stuff between the two tavern visits? I gotta know if he's ordering the same drink both times. That's the kind of mistake that would drive me nuts if I caught it, but honestly it's also kind of funny. 10k words is 10k words though, broken or not.