And so it ends.

Today and just minutes ago, I finished the rewrites/revisions on the computer for draft #7 of Book #7 of the Corrosive Knights series.

The process has been difficult to this point, made even more so because, as can be seen from the graphic above, Book #7 in this series is meant the conclusion of the Corrosive Knights series as well as the conclusion of over 10 years of very hard work.  It also didn’t help that I had people over the past two or so weeks doing work on the house as I’m trying to fit in time to do this revision!

As a conclusion to this series, I absolutely want this book to be special.  I want it to wrap everything up in a way that’s going to leave everyone who’s followed along on this magical ride, from the beginning or beginning now, left more than “just” satisfied.

I want you to leave happy.  I want you to leave pleased.

I want you to feel like the time you’ve gifted me for my writings, the faith you’ve put into my story telling, is more than “just” rewarded.

Mind you, the book isn’t done quite yet, though I feel this latest draft represents something I’ve been longing for: The point where I feel I’ve finally, finally put in everything I wanted to put into this novel.

Every story element is there.  Every story beat has been addressed.

Going forward, there may be some very minor things I may add and/or subtract, but the next drafts, #8 and on, will focus almost exclusively on grammatical and spelling issues.

Basically, the car’s built.  Now its time to polish her paint and clean her interior until she sparkles.

I’m likely repeating myself, but I couldn’t be more proud of what I’ve done here and I truly, sincerely, can’t wait to get it into your hands.

Soon, my friends.  Very soon.

The start of another week so let’s get to it: This week I will be done with the latest draft, #7, of the 7th Book in the Corrosive Knights series…

The work has been to date more involved than I thought it would be, particularly the second half of the novel -and I still have some 50 pages to go!

But the work has been productive and the end result, in my opinion, has been quite good.  This draft of the novel will be that much closer to the final draft.

As I mentioned before, I’m getting to the point where I can look at the series as a whole now, seeing as how I already have Book #8 -the Epilogue- in a rough form, already written but only needing some revisions.

Back to work!

Last posted an update on 7/13/18 (you can read it here) and figured it was time to post another update.

I was hopeful I could make it through the computer corrections of the latest draft of book #7 in the Corrosive Knights series in a matter of two weeks or so.

Things are moving along but perhaps a little slower than I was hoping.  Right now I’m on page 128 of the draft and, given the total page count is 233 pages (single spaced, 10 point font size), it means I’ve got 105 pages to go.

On the plus side, I’m more than halfway through the whole thing.  On the minus side, it’s been nine days since I started and there remain those 105 pages left to do and currently I’m in a sticky point that will require some creative thought/story reworking.

As I get closer to getting a novel “done”, I start to pay really close attention to the various details that make the book’s story “work”.

If you’ve read any of my novels, they tend to have complex (but hopefully not complicated!) plots that require a lot of moving parts to mesh together and make sense when all is said and done.

Book #7 is no exception and as I get further and further along in the drafts, I not only question the pace and story’s unfolding, but also make sure that the various story elements are logical.

It’s a frustrating stage to be at yet one that one has to work through to get the novel done.

Don’t get me wrong: Though it may be a frustrating time, overall I’m happy overall with the pace.  Yeah, there’s work being done on my house and, by that very nature, total concentration on this book isn’t always possible, and there’s also the sticky plot points to deal with, but I know that by the time I finish getting all the material into the computer and formally finish off Draft #7 of Book #7, I’ll be that much closer to being done.

Keeping my fingers crossed!

Yeah, I know, I just did an update a couple of days ago.

This is going to be a quick one:

Yesterday, I began the process of transferring my pen & ink revisions from the printed page to the Word file and in that first day I made it through 32 pages of material.  The full printed work comes to 233 pages as printed (full 8 1/2 x 11 pages, single spaced font sized 10).

If I were to keep up that incredible (and it is incredible!) pace, I could theoretically be done with the entire Word file/draft in a matter of 6-7 more days.

Of course, that won’t quite happen.  As I said before, I do have people doing some work on my house and these early pages of the book are pretty close to being “done”… there are some pages toward the middle and end of the book that will require more scrutiny.

More scrutiny = more work = more time spend on them.

Still, it’s not entirely inconceivable that within the next two weeks, perhaps a little more, I’ll be done with the 7th draft completely and be on my way to draft #8 and this represents a hell of a speedup versus the months it would take me to do earlier drafts.

The bottom line is that this book is getting very near being done, which is what I said in my last update.

Now, let’s get back to it! 😉

It isn’t often when you finally get that glimpse into the culmination of one of your fondest -and long held- dreams.

Today I finished reading/revising on paper the 7th draft of 7th book in the Corrosive Knights series.

When writing my novels, this is the way it goes: I finish up a draft on the computer, print it out, then read the printed version carefully and put down any additions/subtractions by pen.  Once done, I transfer all those pen & ink revisions into the computer and once done with that I print it out and go over the print out once again.

So, as mentioned, I’ve read and done the pen & ink revisions seven times now and, perhaps starting tomorrow (we’ll see, got some workers around the house fixing some stuff up), I’ll get on the computer and begin transferring those revisions into the Word file.

For those keeping track, I started reading and proofing the book on 6/28, which means its taken me a little less than two weeks to do this reading/revision.  I suspect it will take perhaps another couple of weeks, give or take and depending on that work being done on the house, to transfer those revisions into the Word file and fully complete this 7th draft of the book.

Getting all this done to the 6th draft of the book took two months and five or so days, which means I’m speeding up the time it takes to finish a revision.  This in turn means there is less revision needed which in turn means the book is that much closer to being completed.

Again, if time permits and I can work in peace on the computer, I suspect this entire draft from printout to printout/start to end will take me roughly a month and that culmination of the dream becomes that much closer to being a reality.

So yeah, its fair to say I’m elated.  Not just because of this book, which I’m so damn proud of, but this entire series.

It has come out far, far better than I dared think it would, and, you know what?  I’m not just elated.  I’m freaking ecstatic!!!!!!

All right, calm down.

There’s still some work to be done.  There are parts in the novel’s mid section which need to be tightened.  The story beats are good, but the way I described what happens during these parts needs sharpening.  There are also a couple of small add-ons needed toward the book’s conclusion.  However, nothing very big.

The story itself, as they say in movies, is basically locked down.

When I started this novel, I hoped November 2018 would be my far end deadline to finish everything up.  Sure, I hoped it could be done and released earlier, but these novels do have a way of taking their time and this one, just like the others, certainly has done that.  I don’t believe I’ll get it done much earlier and there is the possibility I might take a little longer.

As with all things creative, it’s extremely difficult to predict with any kind of absolute certainty when this will be finished.

Regardless, it’s close, dear readers.  It’s very close now.  Another two or three drafts might just do it.

Keep those fingers crossed!

Been a little bit since my last update of 5/17/18 (you can read it here) but the news is -at least to me!- incredibly exciting: I’m finished with the 6th draft of my latest Corrosive Knights book, #7 in the series and the Conclusion to the Corrosive Knights story…

As you can see from the graphic above, this book will be followed by an 8th book which serves as an “epilogue” to the Corrosive Knights story line and which I’ve already finished the first full draft.

Before getting into details, a quick anecdote -and warning!

Yesterday morning I finished up most of the book save for, quite literally, the last three pages.  Much as I wanted to finish it all up, I had to leave the computer and the draft behind to do some other work.  I would not be able to return to finish those last three pages until after 5 P.M.

So I return home and, while the food’s cooking, sit down in front of the computer to finish up those last bits of the book.  Again, 3 pages worth.

I turn the computer on and… something weird happens.  I use Microsoft Word for my writing and have the file both on the hard drive and on my One Drive.  I do this in case I’m able to use my laptop elsewhere to work on the book.  Highly recommended.

However…

It’s been a very long time since I did the hard drive back up.  In fact, the last time I did it was when I started the 6th draft of my novel, a month ago…

Gulp.

I tried to load up both Word and Excel (this is for my other job), then try to load up files for each program and then… nothing.

Neither file loads up.

I get a very, very sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

I shut both programs off.  I restart them.  I try to load the files back up.

Nothing.  Again.

Now I’m sweating as my creative life flashes in front of my eyes.  The work I’ve done on draft #6 of the book was mentally very strenuous. I’ve done so much damn work and the idea that all of it, right up to three freaking pages before the very end, may be gone just about gives me a stroke.  I wonder if I have the mental strength to get into that book again, should I have lost all the work I did to this point.

Seriously, I didn’t think I could.  Not right away.

Desperate, I shut everything down and restart the computer.  Once its up, I load up Word and click on the latest draft of the book and…

…it appears.

Needless to say, the first thing I then do is make ANOTHER copy of that draft on my hard drive before getting to work and finishing the whole thing off.  Then, I made ANOTHER back up copy of the finished product.

Moral of the story: Make multiple backups.  Then, make some more.  Just in case.

Alrighty then…

Back to the update:  Book #7 of the Corrosive Knights series is, in my humble opinion, one of the most challenging to work on.  With this series I’ve created a story that unfolds over 20,000 plus years and I’ve taken great pains to make sure this story, which is complex, isn’t complicated.

Further, Book #7 is a concluding chapter and therefore it HAS to focus on and resolve all the major plot points I’ve raised/opened from the first book (Mechanic) on.

And so far I’m incredibly pleased with the results.

I noted, when I began the 6th draft of this book, that the first half of this book is good but the second half was what required work.  I realized this after I read through that draft (from 4/21 to 5/16) and then started putting the corrections/additions into the computer (this took me from 5/17 to 6/26).  In terms of time spent on this draft, its taken a little less than 2 and a half months to go through this draft.

I suspect, strongly, draft #7 will take half that time.

Why?  Because I’ve dealt with all those issues in the little more than second half of the book and feel that all those issues I knew were there were dealt with via my revisions.

As of yesterday, this book is that much closer to being ready for release.  To date, I’ve written six books and spent nearly ten years working on this series and, while we’re approaching the end, I’ll be damned if I don’t release something that isn’t my absolute best.

So hang in there, kind folks.

The work on Book #7 moves along nicely.  Today I’m giving myself a day to rest and unwind before printing up this latest draft and quickly moving on to draft #7.

I strongly suspect, based on being able to fix the things I knew needed fixing in draft #6, that future drafts will focus more on the actual mechanics of the writing, ie spelling and grammar and streamlining bloat versus actual “creative” writing.

Once I fully reach that point, things will move much quicker and the book will soon be available.

Very soon!

Hang in there!

Short one:

Today I began typing the revisions.  So far, moving as expected: Quickly.

As I said in yesterday’s post, the first half of the book is quite good, its the second half that requires a little more work.

Regardless, gotta navigate the hills before gettin’ to the mountains!

I really can’t wait for this book to be done and out there.  So incredibly exciting!

Hang in there!

It’s been nearly a month since my last update (4/18/18… you can read it here) on progress for Book #7 of the Corrosive Knights series.

Today, I’m pleased to announce I’ve finished the read-through/written revisions of Draft #6 of the book and will be soon putting those revisions on the computer.  Once done, It’s off to Draft #7.

It’s taken me a little longer than I hoped to get through the read-through, though this was something that was also anticipated.  We had some traveling done (a graduation) and I’ve been left in almost sole charge of a family business so time to focus on the novel has been a little tighter (and might be a little tighter for the next few weeks) than before.

Regardless, I feel I have a very good grasp -much better than I did after finishing Draft #5- of the book than before.

Basically, the first half or so of the book is great.  It requires minimal fixing, mostly grammatical/spelling type stuff.

However, there is still work to be done in the second half of the book, some of which may require a little more writing (I suppose this is similar to when it is reported a film calls back the actors to do “reshoots”).

To be clear: The book is well on its way to being finished but there are elements in that second half that will require more work.

On the great side, I feel that after I finish up the revisions for the 1st half of the book, I can set that aside and don’t have to do full novel revisions from now on.

This will save time as I’ll be focused on shaping/revising the second half of the book exclusively and reading/revising a full novel versus one half a novel will cut down on the time required to finish up.

Before I release the book and when I’m happy with the second half of it, I’ll give it one more full read-through and see how the book feels as a whole.

As impatient as I am to get it all done, these things do take their time, but it IS moving ahead and we will get there.

Soon!

Whew…

It’s been twenty days since my last Corrosive Knights update of 3/28/18, and I’m very, VERY pleased to announce I’ve just now finished the rewrites of draft #5 of the latest book in the series, Book #7…

In this new draft, I’ve cut quite a bit of stuff and taken the book from 288 pages (single spaced) down to 246.  A lot of the stuff that was cut out was either alternate “takes” of scenes or stuff I put in the back of certain chapters and wondered if this stuff would be needed and/or could be used in any new draft.  The answer, to many of those bits and pieces, was a “no”.

So the book is far more streamlined and that much closer to having everything in its proper place.

Note too, that it took me much less time to get through this than getting draft #4 done, which took something like 3-4 months.

That’s what happens as the book nears completion, things are more likely to fall in place and less “creative” writing is necessary while more grammatical/spelling type things rise to the forefront.

Regardless, as of today draft #5 is history and its off to draft #6.

I can’t wait for you all to see it!