Revisiting, compiling, a new hope, and some David Foster Wallace
Entry #1-7: The Journals Of A Debut Novel
This post is part of an ongoing project. It is the diary of a book—a log of the process of writing a debut novel as I write it. You can read more about it here.
On September 1, 2025, I started work on the proper first draft—Draft #1—of the novel codenamed Project Morpheus. In Entry #1 (September 1, 2025), I defined my goal for this first draft:
Finish Draft #1 in 75 days, including today. Have Draft #1 complete by November 14, 2025. In terms of word count, draft should have 70,000 words, split into ten chapters, each chapter would have roughly 7,000 words.
This is just for some intial structure. It is much less scary to focus on one chapter and 7,000 words than it is to focus on 1 book and 70,000 words.
Structure will be fixed and improved in next iterations/drafts, but some intial scaffolding is necessary. So then, with each chapter, goal is to simply finish that chapter. Not to worry about the book.Main goal for this draft—Draft #1—is to get the full story down on the page. From beginning to end.
On Day 1, I compiled all my notes and previous drafts from various places into a single place. On Day 2 and Day 3, I read through the previous partial drafts (one I had written in 2023 and one I had written in 2024), which was a harrowing experience. Before I go into that, it was interesting to see how much the story and the ideas had changed over time. What I am writing now has almost nothing in common with the original story idea, except the theme of the novel.
Now, about that harrowing experience: When I read through the 2023 draft, it was quite depressing to see how bad it was—the writing, the dialogue, all of it. I guess, if I’m being generous, I could say there were some decent parts, but overall it was pretty bad. “Good to get bad writing out of my system though,” I wrote in Entry #2.
Fortunately, when I read the 2024 draft the next day, the writing and the story were much better (it was a low bar, but still), which made me hopeful—if the direction is right, then ultimately, with each draft, I could make the writing and the story better.
From Entry #2 (September 2, 2025):
’s newsletter, , talking about a quote by John Cage: True meaning of discipline is to give yourself over to a project rather than expecting to get something from it.
From
On September 4, 2025, I finally started writing the new Draft #1, and the words just flowed. From Entry #4: “The voice, the tone, feels very different compared to previous drafts. Not sure if it is any good. But at least the words are there.”
With each day, it got harder to write, but I made sure to sit down and write at least something each day, just so I don’t break the chain for these 75 days. On Day 6, I wrote just one sentence before bed. The hardest part is to sit down and start, especially the beginning of a chapter or a scene.
On Day 7 (Entry #7), I came across this snippet of David Foster Wallace’s interview with Charlie Rose, where he talked about David Lynch, Blue Velvet, and creating from your true, authentic, and uninhibited self:
Also from Entry #7: “Write now, edit later.”
The act of maintaining this journal, writing in it—pen and paper—before writing the book each day, makes it a much better process and helps reduce, at least manage, my anxieties, insecurities, and fears. A big part of writing is spending a lot of time in solitude, alone with my thoughts, which means to write more and to write better, I really need to reduce the amount of news and online content I consume.
I am also finding this ongoing series of essays on writing a novel by
really insightful:From Entry #5 (September 5, 2025):
Came across a quote today: “How odd, I can have all this inside me and to you it’s just words.”—David Foster Wallace, The Pale King
Current word count, based on Entry #7 (September 7, 2025): 2,865 words.
Until next time,
YJ