One of Jerry Seinfeld’s monologues was about Day Guy and Night Guy, something along the lines that Night Guy doesn’t care about staying up late or being responsible because that is Day Guy’s job. As someone who never likes to go without sleep, I cannot quite relate, but I can in terms of writing. When I am writing a first draft, especially during NaNoWriMO, I definitely am First Draft Gal. First Draft Gal does not care about details, such as names of characters. In this morning’s draft, I actually named a character SUSPECT1. First Draft Gal doesn’t care if she repeats herself. She doesn’t even care if she changes the main character’s name. “That’s Revision Gal’s job,” she thinks.
This month, I’m moving between both roles, and I have to say that Revision Gal is disgusted with First Draft Gal. As I sift through various notes and drafts for this series, I have discovered that I have given the main character a total of FOUR different names. I can understand mixing up the random characters I invent along the way, but this is the protagonist, for Pete’s sake.
First Draft Gal just laughs. Hey, you wanted to write a novel, she says.
reader. writer. 