I'm ahead of schedule by almost a day, and I am very proud of what I'm writing, despite that it's only a first draft, and this post is mostly about why I am happy with it.
First, I feel like I know my characters which has never been a problem with my short stories, but always an issue with my novels. For one character, I threw in bits and pieces of myself, and for the protagonist I made sure he was really pushing for a theme that is appearing in my novel. For the first time in an attempt at a novel, I care about my characters and hope the best happens, but I know that might not happen (I've read that all good stories kill off at least one character we care about).
The story is also moving in a way I have never seen myself go before. It means I've grown as a writer since this time last year. Last year, I wrote my novel in chunks of scenes, only bringing in the parts I thought people would want to read, and the rest was boring trash. This year I've decided to include the boring trash, because I've realized that you can't have scenes unless the characters get to them, and last year characters were magically appearing where they needed to be and there were random jumps in time, leaving the whole novel scattered. It was very bad, but this year I'm writing about the character showing up at the doorstep to his girlfriend's apartment, and I show the drunken father walking in with a prostitute instead of getting right to the action, because action is overwhelming if that's all there is. You need some time to cool down or else the reader will feel like their caught in a vortex and put the book down and need a tylenol for the headache you've given them.
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