Remember my optimism I could get the new novel done by later this year, provided I didn’t hit any speed bumps along the way?

Welp…

I kinda have hit a speed bump… my own creative thoughts!

Suddenly the book is looking like a considerably… longer work.

And much more intriguing…!

Let’s see what happens.

It’s still within the realm of possibility I finish it up for later this year but then again I might have really set myself a big task here!

I’ll say no more… other than I’m excited where this is heading!

I’m posting this today because it occurs to me I should present this at this time.

I’m going to be vague about certain things, but bear with me. Eventually, perhaps several months down the road, it will make sense.

I began my new novel, according to my notes, on 9/30/2020.

By 5/12/21 I had the first draft finished and began the second.

These dates are important, at least for me, to remember.

Why?

Well… I can’t go into it because doing so would spoil the novel and essentially make it pointless to continue working on it.

As much as I’m enjoying writing this novel, there are forces outside my control which have made me for the very first time I can remember consider giving up on a work after spending so much time (some eight months!!) devoted to it.

However, after giving it a lot of thought this past week, I’ve decided to go ahead and finish it up. I’m roughly 2/3rds or so into the second draft and feel the book is worth continuing despite these reservations.

I’ll explain it all in the book itself, I promise, and I’m sorry for being so vague.

If nothing else, its important for me to set this marker down on this particular date.

Again, my apologies for being so vague!

Don’t have a ton to update at this moment yet, nonetheless, enough to warrant this post.

Basically I’m still at the novel’s first act, rewriting/revising the material as I’m going along.

What is very fascinating about going over something you’ve written already is that you start adding stuff to it and, often, it proves to be exactly what’s needed and probably should have been there to begin with.

I can’t get into details as that would be SPOILERY and, also, we’re so early into the writing of this book that even if I did state what I’ve come up with, its possible things might change in the later parts of the book and/or in a future draft.

Having said that, I’m very pleased with what I’m doing here.

I just hope I can get it done well before the end of the year and release it!

I’m genuinely excited about what its about and feel it works wonderfully with these bizarre times.

I’ll say no more!

I’ve begun the process of putting the revisions I wrote in red ink on the first draft of my new novel and, so far, things are going pretty well.

As somewhat expected, I’ve begun to think of things to add to the book and, while I’m still in the opening act (page 18 of the single spaced, 10 point writing) I’ve already added one new segment and am about to add another.

It works, I feel, to help explain things that come later on in the book.

Of course, I’m being deliberately vague here and, who knows, maybe as I get into future drafts I cut down on some of that stuff because I figure out a better way of presenting it or get it presented later in the book without needing to elaborate at the beginning.

Am I making any sense?

I’ve grappled with metaphors to explain the writing process and the one that feels most apt is that writing a book is like doing an oil painting.

You start with some rough image you create on your canvas, perhaps in charcoal, then you add the broad brushstrokes to delineate the colors you’ll feature in your piece.

With oil, you can paint over an area, again and again, and merge colors to your heart’s content.

What starts out as a very rough work over time becomes refined and elaborate. Toward the end, you’re adding in those last flourishes/details.

I’m at the beginning still, but feel like I have a solid foundation to build up from.

We’ll see how it goes!

Yesterday I finished my first read-through of the first draft of my new novel and…

…I’m pleased with what I have.

Quite pleased.

It took roughly 7 or so months to write this first draft and now do the read-through. The next step is to put the revisions I made in red ink on the pages of that first draft into the computer, print the thing out, and start the read-through/revision of Draft #2.

How much work will need to be done before this novel is ready for release?

As I noted in older posts detailing the travails of writing my novels, for a while there it took me a whopping 12 drafts to get some of my Corrosive Knights novels, especially the later books, ready.

It was an odd thing, but three or so novels in a row (I believe books 5, 6, and 7 in particular) required exactly that many drafts before I felt they were good.

That’s right, 12 drafts each, neither 11 drafts or 13!

However, my previous novel, Terminus Island (Book 8 of the Corrosive Knights series) in the end required a mere 5 drafts before I felt it was ready and released it.

It feels to me this new novel -my first novel in many years not set in the Corrosive Knights universe- is falling sorta/kinda in that same general area.

That’s not to say the book will be finished in 5 drafts (whether less or more), but at this point -and assuming I don’t stumble upon some really big problems in this book I’m not seeing- I’m certain it will not take 12 drafts to get it done.

Which, of course, means the book will be done and released sooner rather than later.

Perhaps even by the later parts of this very year!

Wouldn’t that be great?

Stay tuned!