AQATWW: Unleash the Betas!
I have finished my first round of revisions. One previewer read the entire (rough) first draft and provided valuable commentary. (And thought it was pretty good, flaws notwithstanding.) Now that I have hopefully done enough patching and polishing, I have a second draft in (theoretical) final form which has now been released to the entire team of betas.
I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing, but unlike previous books, I didn't actually end up doing any major rewrites between the first and second draft. There were definitely some scenes added and removed, and a lot of changes big and small. But no story arcs added or removed. No chapters ripped out or moved wholesale. In fact, my second draft, in outline form, is pretty close to the first draft.
Current status: 66 chapters, 377,242 words. So the chapter count stayed the same! Unprecedented! I did trim a little over 10,000 words, which is not as much trimming as I did with books one through four, but at least it didn't get bigger in rewrites, like AQATWA.
There are definitely still a few rough edges I'm hoping to sand down, but a lot of things I was unhappy with when I finished my first draft, I actually liked better on rereading them.
Assuming my beta-readers do not tear it to shreds, I am hopeful that I will be able to start posting Alexandra Quick and the Wizard War later this year.
Yes, there will still be janky Poser art! Not all AI!
I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing, but unlike previous books, I didn't actually end up doing any major rewrites between the first and second draft. There were definitely some scenes added and removed, and a lot of changes big and small. But no story arcs added or removed. No chapters ripped out or moved wholesale. In fact, my second draft, in outline form, is pretty close to the first draft.
Current status: 66 chapters, 377,242 words. So the chapter count stayed the same! Unprecedented! I did trim a little over 10,000 words, which is not as much trimming as I did with books one through four, but at least it didn't get bigger in rewrites, like AQATWA.
There are definitely still a few rough edges I'm hoping to sand down, but a lot of things I was unhappy with when I finished my first draft, I actually liked better on rereading them.
Assuming my beta-readers do not tear it to shreds, I am hopeful that I will be able to start posting Alexandra Quick and the Wizard War later this year.
Yes, there will still be janky Poser art! Not all AI!