Paranormal Privateers First Draft Writing – What’s That?

Where does one begin Paranormal Privateers First Draft Writing?  With the hook!

Here is my actual first line hook and the rest of the first paragraph:

Dirac sighed with relief when the US flag came down and the surrender flag went up on the mast of the titanic luxury yacht. He didn’t mind firing rounds from his AK-47 over their heads, but he hated killing people. He knew they were only infidels, but they were still people.

The reader learns: 1) a US yacht is surrendering; 2) the pirate’s name is Dirac; 3) He’s ready to use his AK-47 on them; 4) The pirate considers the US citizens infidels.

More questions leap to mind immediately. Don’t you want to read the next paragraph? This whole scene is here:

So I wrote the whole chapter pretty quickly. It’s a lot like performing magic: you lead the reader to expect one thing and then you make the opposite happen. I begin with the readers learning about zombie invincibility–and then put them in a seemingly impossible situation to escape.

Sometimes I lead you to expect a big fight and then all the villains escape. Sometimes I lead the reader to expect another adventure just like the last one–and have the heroes rescued by someone else.

Then just as you think you have the pattern of the chapter adventures established, I change all the rules of the game and add completely new and different villains.

Oh, I love writing!

The Work of  Paranormal Privateers First Draft Writing

It’s not all lollipops and roses.

By writing 4700 words on November 30th, I met my NaNoMo goal of 50,000 words by November 30th. But I had only completed five or six chapters!  My outline said I was only half done!

I assumed I would finish it in December, despite the Christmas holidays. But I was wrong. I only wrote about 15-20,000 words.

I gritted my teeth and set my will to finish the first draft in January 2018. And I did. But I had to work at it.

This is what no one tells you about writing. Even writing a fun book like Paranormal Privateers and knowing exactly what I was writing in each chapter, it is still hard work to write.

Another thing: no one tells you that after six hours of writing you’re wasted. Your brain can only handle television or Youtube cartoon videos.

What comes next after Writing Paranormal Privateers First Draft?

The second draft! But I’ll cover that in the next post.

For now, here are some of my best finds from the internet.

The Best of the Andy’s Internet

Let’s start with some science fiction story fuel in the following article:

Next, have some news about my next audiobook, Paranormal Privateers:

Then speaking of Paranormal Privateers, did you know you can get a free sample here?

Next, some good news for the fantasy movie lovers out there:

Now, A Public Service Announcement

Any of you interested in writing? I’m teaching along with three other authors in Normal Illinois.

Finally, a Cool Martian Video

Enjoy!