After a year and a half of working on and off, the second draft of the Novel is complete.
The first draft wasn’t much of anything. That’s part of the process of how I write; when I’m telling the story to begin with, it’s very ephemeral and inconsistent, with plot holes and continuity errors all over the place. All I’m doing is talking to myself, in a very haphazard way. The second draft, though, is where things get nailed down and I work through why this scene needs to be there or how this piece of history needs to happen.
While I was writing this, I solidified the characters and the world setting and got thinking, seriously, about the second and third books.
There’s something really good about finishing it. I’ve done a lot of writing, and I’ve done a lot of practice. I wrote two other books before this one, but I wouldn’t really call them books at all – they were trial runs, there only for me to learn and move on. This one is the real one. This one is where I want to begin my career as a writer.
I still don’t have a title I like. Chasing the Core is all I’ve got, and that’s hardly going to jump off the shelf. (Memo to self: think of better title.) It’s complete at just over 97,000 words, which will change between now and the final draft, but I’m hoping to keep it around that length.
I’m going to rest for a few days. Come December, I have to start editing and polishing it up. I plan to start querying at the start of February.
I will also plan to beat the stupid out of anyone who says writing is easy.