Sorcera's Sucky First Draft

First drafts suck. And it's okay.
The first draft of Sorcera sucked, and that's okay.
I think it's really important to make things that aren't amazing. Actually, the act of making thing at all, even if it's shit, is pretty amazing. To make something that doesn't suck is even better. But at some point, all of us kind of suck, and for me, that was the first draft of Sorcera (and many other first drafts, but we can get into that later, maybe). So now, I want to share with you the shitshow that was the first draft of Sorcera, and laugh about it together. Just cuz that makes me happy.

1. The coven lived in a giant magical library in NYC, similar to Grimmauld Place.

Okay, Sorcera did start out as a 9th grader's magical fantasy, so it's kind of okay. But it was an obvious ripoff of Harry Potter, and I never even explained how they'd gotten the place. It was huge, but the hugeness was useless, as things only ever really happened in the lobby, kitchen, and bedrooms. Characters could go hide somewhere if they were mad. And the library wasn't even magic itself; it was just a regular, big building with marble walls. Which is pretty. But useless. Especially when a large space like that would be expensive and/or useless in NYC.

2. Nicole was a total asshole.

One of my main characters, Nicole, was meant to be the leader of the group. However, other than her saying she was the leader a lot, she never acted like one. And she yelled at people all the time. Originally she was based off me, so I'm really distressed about how she turned out that way. Check out this quick excerpt:
Nicole stepped backwards at the words, grimacing.
“What do you mean, we’re next? We don’t even know you!” She argued. 
Why so aggressive, Nicole? Why so annoying, all the time? She was constantly defensive, two-dimensional, and just plain boring. Luckily, I managed to fix her up in future drafts.

3. Miles existed.

If you read the first draft of Sorcera, you'd be surprised to meet a character named Miles, an entirely bland shop owner who provided Sorcera with tips and tricks for surviving Storm. Not only was Miles uninteresting, everyone who read the story kind of hated him. He also was a love interest for a character who is about as into men as cats like dogs--their relationship did not work. 

4. The villains were two-dimensional.

I had a big problem in my first draft: the coven Sorcera faces, Storm, was filled with the exact same character. A weird, twisted, but beautiful villainess who liked to tease the heroes. It was excruciating to reread, and just plain confusing when they all talked together. In my second draft, I've worked to make them more like individuals, and they've been much more fun to write. 

I decided to mention all of these because I think it's important to realize what things work and what things don't, and it's also important to be able to laugh at yourself sometimes! It was good work for where I was then, but now I've improved immensely. I like looking back and seeing how far I've come.

So what do you think of your first draft of your current work in progress? What have you changed? 

Potato Chip Sorcery (or, My Current Writing Project)

When I first came up with the idea for Sorcera, it probably would have been a better sitcom than a novel. The concept was this: a coven of young witches living in an old, abandoned library, trying to support themselves on minimum wage jobs, but mostly just messing around with their powers. The first time I put my pen to paper about this concept, I wrote a short work called "Potato Chip Sorcery", where two of my characters threw potato chips at each other using telekinesis.

Needless to say, the story has changed in tone and style quite a bit since than. I am currently in my first revision of the novel--my first draft was so bad that I was already planning the revision as I was finishing it up! Since the crappy storylines and flat characters of the first draft don't really matter anymore, for now I'll be gushing about how excited I am for my second draft--I'm currently about 13,500 words in.

In the world I've created, witches exist alongside people--some humans know about them, some don't, it's all pretty chill in that department (the president probably knows, for public safety and all). There are four elements, and each witch is tied to one of them. Each element has powers that correspond to it, and if witches combine their powers, they can often get some pretty interesting results.

The witch world is governed by various councils in various countries, but all witches bow to the Complete, a coven that has one air witch, one water witch, one earth witch, and one fire witch. It is impossible for you to cultivate a coven with this combination unless it is fated, at which point, you rise to power in the witch community. However, there's a catch. In order to remain dominant in this world, you have to kill the other Complete--otherwise, they'll kill you. And probably a lot of other people on their way to you. This is based off the idea of the dynastic cycle; power corrupts, and by the time one of the Complete is corrupt, a new one rises to take its place.

My four main characters are who really propel the story--originally based off me and three of my friends (cliche and awful, I know), they've developed into fully-fleshed characters of their own. Nicole, Malone, Adele, and Bambi are all witches, and each corresponds to one of the four elements.I'm a huge fan of character-driven novels, and so it only makes sense that these four are my favorite parts of writing Sorcera. I enjoy seeing how they interact together, learning to work as a team as they become the next Complete, forced to stand against Storm, a group of veteran witches known for their ruthlessness and power.

I could go on for ages about Sorcera, but there's plenty of time for that! You'll no doubt be hearing more about it from me soon. For now, feel free to tell me what you think of the story based on the plot summary! Thank you!

Talk to you soon,
Kekai