Sooooooo…
It’s been a while. How is everyone? Good? Good.
Last time I wrote, I wasn’t in the best frame of mind, and I realize now that maybe waiting three months to write a follow-up isn’t the best way to go.
I’m doing better now. The existential angst isn’t as crushing as it was, I think that’s mostly because I’m cycling out of a depressed state. It helps that Spring is kind of showing her face here in Maine (I say kind of, cuz I woke up to fresh snow yesterday).
But mostly, I felt stagnant. I’d been revising my current novel for…I’m not really sure how long now at this point. It seems like forever. Back in January, it felt like there was no end in sight. Then, in February, I laid out a chapter-by-chapter revision plan complete with dates for completing those revisions. I set an aggressive schedule, so of course, between work, travel, illness, and procrastination, it took a month longer to complete.
What’s that?
Oh yeah. My revisions, as of yesterday, are DONE!
It feels so freeing to write that.
I started drafting the first inkling of this book when I was 14, that’s ten years ago. I put it aside when I was 16, not really in love with it anymore. Then, at 19, I picked it up again, realizing that it would make a good practice book. I finished the first full draft of it in less than nine months.
That first draft was an absolute mess. There were thirteen different point of view characters (I’d been reading a lot of George R.R. Martin). Plots disappeared and appeared abruptly. Characters vanished without a trace. I knew it was a mess, but I thought I knew how to fix it.
I took my favorite POV characters from that draft and started discovery writing a new draft with a completely different plot, one that I’d vaguely outlined on Note Cards. I never finished that draft, because about four months in, I realized it was becoming more flashback than forwarding action. I decided to shift the story back ten years and tell it from the beginning(ish).
That was in 2013.
Over the past three and a half years, I’ve outlined, drafted, reoutlined, and redrafted this book four times. What started out as a practice novel turned into a story that I’m proud to have written. I hope I can publish it, but for now, my next step is looking for beta readers to give me feedback on the book. As of now, I’m the only person to have ever read the entire thing.
If you’re interested in being a beta reader or are wondering what that entails, contact me, and I’ll get you more information.
Update: Thank you to everyone who reached out to me about reading. I’ve got enough readers for the moment. Stay tuned for more reading opportunities.
Thank you for reading
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