Slow Going
Yesterday I broke 40,000 words on the first draft of Red Hood's Revenge, making this "officially" a novel, at least by word count. I'm guessing this draft will need at least another 20,000 or so before I can start on the rewrite. Mermaid's first draft was 67,000, with the final version coming in at 105K. At the pace I'm going, it will probably be late March before the first draft of Red Hood is done, leaving me four months to revise, revise, and revise.
This scares me. The last book took four rewrites. That would mean rewriting the book every month from now through my 8/1/09 deadline. I'm hoping this one won't be as messed up as the last, but who knows?
So what did I do today? Sat back and brainstormed to figure out the role of the nomadic tribes of Arathea, and the larger history of the fairy races there. Actual word count: zero.
Argh! I needed to develop this piece of the story. I needed a reason for Talia to hunt these people down (aside from finding safety in the desert), and I needed to strengthen the fantastic aspect of the worldbuilding. What I've got helps. It brings a new twist to the end, adds more depth to Arathean culture, develops the villains' motivations to make them less cardboard, even ties things in to Red Riding Hood's backstory a little better ... these are all good things.
It still scares me.
I've pushed myself to write at least a book a year. But assuming DAW goes for book four, I think I'm going to try for a little more time in my contract to write that one. Maybe I won't need it. I hope not. But I'd much rather be early than late.
This scares me. The last book took four rewrites. That would mean rewriting the book every month from now through my 8/1/09 deadline. I'm hoping this one won't be as messed up as the last, but who knows?
So what did I do today? Sat back and brainstormed to figure out the role of the nomadic tribes of Arathea, and the larger history of the fairy races there. Actual word count: zero.
Argh! I needed to develop this piece of the story. I needed a reason for Talia to hunt these people down (aside from finding safety in the desert), and I needed to strengthen the fantastic aspect of the worldbuilding. What I've got helps. It brings a new twist to the end, adds more depth to Arathean culture, develops the villains' motivations to make them less cardboard, even ties things in to Red Riding Hood's backstory a little better ... these are all good things.
It still scares me.
I've pushed myself to write at least a book a year. But assuming DAW goes for book four, I think I'm going to try for a little more time in my contract to write that one. Maybe I won't need it. I hope not. But I'd much rather be early than late.