Draft 3 Finished

Draft 3: 100% | 90,000 words

What a wild ride so far…

I have to admit that editing a novel is much more difficult than actually writing the dang thing. But, as with everything, consistency is the secret. A little bit every day, paired with caffeine and SpringStep, it will be done in no time.

I’m shocked at all the little things I’ve changed narratively. It was so much easier to sprinkle foreshadowing throughout. I think the hardest part was making decisions that I was split on. Things like the color of someone’s hair, someone’s dominant hand, character interactions, spellings of made-up words, and other spoilery things.

I’d sent the novel to my select five beta readers — hopefully catching different demographics with differing opinions and experiences. The time frame is loose, but I expect them to be finished by July 8. I’ll then spend a month or so revising the draft, fixing punctuation and formatting as well as going through beta reader notes.

After that, I’ll send it to a copy editor who will have it for about a month or more. I’ll do some last final revisions, then send it to a proofreader, formatter, and then I’ll publish. I’ve passed the hard part, now we are in the waiting phase. In the meantime, I have a few other projects I need to work on.

One of my favorite things about writing a novel is that transferring my thoughts and emotions onto a page is so much easier now. I wish I had this skill in high school. I remember being paralyzed at the idea of writing a ten-page paper on something. Maybe I just hated MLA and citing my sources.

Anyway, this book is a wild ride. This world that I crafted is so unique, I doubt you’ve seen anything like it. I should have waited to write this until I had enough experience, but you live and learn. I just hope you guys love this world as much as I do; I still ponder the possibilities I could take it in a future novel.

Work on The Ballad of Kings and Beggars has resumed. It’s going to be a novella, hopefully around 50k words. Knowing myself I’ll probably add another couple thousand in revision. This book is a lot of fun and the first draft isn’t as terrible as the bright spot’s first draft. Excited for you all to check this one out, too.

Kings and Beggars is a standalone novella that does not take place in the world of The Bright Spot. It will hopefully be released sometime next year.

Uhh… That’s it, I think. Play Expedition 33, I guess.