How Far We've Gone
The first draft of this novel was written back in April 2013 during Camp NaNoWriMo. After a few months of letting it sit and then doing a re-read I realized how the entire thing had to be scrapped and re-written. That's a pretty tough decision to make, but I realized too how much planning would be needed to write the story that I wanted to write.
I took months to plan. I read through the old draft and made notes about ideas on what I wanted to change, characters I might add, plot arcs that should be changed, themes I could pick up on. From these notes I made a detailed outline, at least for 2/3 of the story. The last section I wasn't entirely pleased with, but I thought I might have a better idea of what to do with it once I finished the next draft. I knew how I wanted to end it, I just wasn't sure how to get from the midpoint to the end. Sure enough, while I was writing this next draft it came to me around 5:00 or so in the morning during my pre-work writing time. I grabbed a notebook and sketched out the back and forth perspectives all the way to the end. I've been using that as my guide for these past few weeks as I grappled with the ending and what was going to happen to certain characters & plotlines. Is it set in stone now? Of course not, but it's a scaffolding I'm happy with.
This being a second draft, there's going to be a ton of cutting later on. Several scenes I wrote knowing that I wasn't going to keep them in the published version, so this is way longer than it will be after a visit to the cutting floor. Of course other scenes will likely need more detail, cause I'm bad about that. Still though, this draft is FINISHED. Time to put it on the back-burner and turn my attention to other writing projects!
Here’s the progress on my YA other-world fantasy novel about urban explorer Shaleigh Mallett who is whisked away to the Land of the Fae. Along the way she encounters living statues, friendly minotaurs, and a backstabbing ruler. When she gets tangled up in a love story that can’t possibly end well, Shaleigh finds herself forced to make a difficult choice that could change the future of this new land, and prevent her from ever getting home.
Project: Madam Cloom's Garden
FINAL Word Count: 108,151
New Words Written:
12/2/14 - 143
1/27/15 - 321
1/28 - 512
1/29 - 872
2/1 - 386
2/3 - 1,279
2/5 - 1,827
Commentary: Ending it on an adrenaline-pumping note. Some questions are answered, some closure is found, but the journey is hardly over.
I took months to plan. I read through the old draft and made notes about ideas on what I wanted to change, characters I might add, plot arcs that should be changed, themes I could pick up on. From these notes I made a detailed outline, at least for 2/3 of the story. The last section I wasn't entirely pleased with, but I thought I might have a better idea of what to do with it once I finished the next draft. I knew how I wanted to end it, I just wasn't sure how to get from the midpoint to the end. Sure enough, while I was writing this next draft it came to me around 5:00 or so in the morning during my pre-work writing time. I grabbed a notebook and sketched out the back and forth perspectives all the way to the end. I've been using that as my guide for these past few weeks as I grappled with the ending and what was going to happen to certain characters & plotlines. Is it set in stone now? Of course not, but it's a scaffolding I'm happy with.
This being a second draft, there's going to be a ton of cutting later on. Several scenes I wrote knowing that I wasn't going to keep them in the published version, so this is way longer than it will be after a visit to the cutting floor. Of course other scenes will likely need more detail, cause I'm bad about that. Still though, this draft is FINISHED. Time to put it on the back-burner and turn my attention to other writing projects!
Here’s the progress on my YA other-world fantasy novel about urban explorer Shaleigh Mallett who is whisked away to the Land of the Fae. Along the way she encounters living statues, friendly minotaurs, and a backstabbing ruler. When she gets tangled up in a love story that can’t possibly end well, Shaleigh finds herself forced to make a difficult choice that could change the future of this new land, and prevent her from ever getting home.
Project: Madam Cloom's Garden
FINAL Word Count: 108,151
New Words Written:
12/2/14 - 143
1/27/15 - 321
1/28 - 512
1/29 - 872
2/1 - 386
2/3 - 1,279
2/5 - 1,827
Commentary: Ending it on an adrenaline-pumping note. Some questions are answered, some closure is found, but the journey is hardly over.