First Draft of My Next Book Done!

Probably not the cover -- but the mood.

As always, I’m delighted and relieved to report that I finished the first draft of my next novel. I’m a person who never likes anything, good or bad, hanging over my head, and that includes an unfinished story. This is especially true when I don’t have a clear picture of the story details when I start. So it is always a relief to know that a story well over half done, with only the part that I really enjoy -- tinkering with the words -- in my second and third draft. So even though there's still a couple of weeks worth of work ahead, the heavy lifting is done.

My first file for this book is dated 20 January – four lines, just to break the ice, so to speak. Between 21 February and 22 February I wrote two pages. I got seriously down to business on 4 March. I wrote for a total of 21 days in March. I devote 1 ½ to 2 hours each morning to writing with an occasional evening session as well. I don’t have a daily word count goal – I never have trouble typing words if I know what I want to say. In the middle of March, I took a few days off, as I had overrun my imagination, and had to stop and think about where I was going. I even spent a day typing out a outline of the remaining story -- something I never do. A chronology, yes, so I know the time line, but a two page written outline. Nope. Until now. I had to pause several times in the process of writing this story. On those days, I'd go back and start my revision process until I figured out how to push ahead. I wrote every day in April and finished the first draft on 2 May, missing my target date by those two days in May. All in all, it took me two months to write a relatively short, 67K novel.

Ideally I have the story in my head in its entirety before I sit down to write it. Usually I’ve gone over key scenes in my mind time and time again. These days that hasn’t been the case. Part of it is that I’m writing more, but shorter stories these days, starting the next one within days of finishing the last one. It’s a case of making hay while the sun shines. I have some story ideas, and I want to keep the creative juices flowing. I’m afraid that if I get out of the habit of daily writing, it will be hard to get back into it again. I’ve seen my spring of inspiration dry up when it comes to painting, and I have to believe that the same thing can, and someday will, happen with my writing as well. As I said, making hay while the sun shines.

So what’s this next book about, you ask. Well, I think I’ll save most of the details for a future post. I’ll only say that it is the third and, for now, last Nine Star Nebula Mystery/Adventure novel in this set. And it should be ready to be released in early July 2021.