Writing Diary | Entry 01
Originally published at LeySaulnier.com. You can comment here or there.
Writing Diary is a regular post every couple of weeks where I touch on what’s going on in my writing life - whether it be updates on what I’ve been up to, snippets of writing, or posts about the process.
I wrote a book.
Back in late summer 2012, my life went through some changes. My Diablo III buddy stopped playing, so suddenly all those hours spent dungeon-crawling (or chatting in tiny boxes while my character shifted from foot to foot on screen) ended. We had almost beat the game on Inferno mode too. What a jerk*.
So, in true bored Ley fashion, I wrote another book. I wasn’t expecting to finish the first draft before NaNoWriMo ’12 began, though I’d certainly hoped to. In a way, the rush to complete the book before NaNo started helped me set a deadline.
Ley works very well on a deadline. My first completed novel (first draft, anyway) was written before NaNoWriMo ’09, while my second completed novel (again, first draft) was written during. It’s after that deadline ends that things get tricky.
The first novel I ever wrote and completed made it to its second draft before I trunked it. In hindsight, this was largely due to the huge influx of angel/demon novels and the realization that I would never be able to sell it. The way publishing works, if the trend** is currently going on with released books, that means it’s already passed for the agents and the publishers who buy the books.
Anyway. I wrote a book. And then I edited it over the span of a couple of months. And as I reread it for purposes of finishing the third draft - soon to be followed by letting another person read it! Eep. - things are becoming scary. By the end of the year, I could be querying agents.
But first: more editing. I’m hoping it gets easier after the second draft.
Probably not.
* A couple months later we started dating, so I don’t really mean it. (Okay, kind of.)
** Thank god that vampire trend passed, amirite?