I’ve been rather quiet as of late, but I’m slowly getting
back into the swing of being social with people again. I’ve been swamped with
freelance editing work in addition to working on my own stuff. I’ve edited five
books since the beginning of the year, totaling approximately 265,000 words. I’ve
run The Wizard’s Heart through another
draft and have started the revision notes for the next based on beta-reader
feedback. And, on top of all that, I’m taking care of a
six-and-a-half-month-old full-time. So, you know, I’ve been busy.
But, as an update, I wanted to let you all know where I am
on things.
Some of you will recall a bit of desperation when I received
beta feedback for The Wizard’s Heart.
I received a lot of negative comments—flat characters, predictable plot, dull
setting, clichéd concepts, subpar writing, outright boring to the point that a
good number of beta readers didn’t even finish the book. You know, happy stuff.
I was angry. I was upset. I wanted to just burn the book and forget I ever
wrote it. I’m tired of working on it. I’m tired of it not being good enough. I’m
tired of trying to make it better. All of that led to a particularly whiny post
that basically said ‘fuck it, I’m just going to publish this stupid thing and
get it over with’. But with some distance and perspective, I realized that I can
actually tackle the seemingly overwhelming edits to make this a good book—maybe
even a great one.
I have a lot of
work to do. I’m not going to pretend otherwise. But I think I can do it. There
are several big changes I need to make—adding a few scenes to the beginning and
middle of the book, strengthening the character arcs—and then I have even more
small changes—clarifying this or that, better describing the setting so that the
reader doesn’t get confused, adding a line of dialogue here, changing a line of
introspection there, cleaning up combat scenes, and so on.
Unfortunately (and
you knew this was coming), that means I’m going to have to push the publication
date back for the thirty-thousandth time. I really wanted to have this book
published this June. I really doubt
that’s going to happen. I have hope for July, but realistically, I’m probably
looking at an August release, assuming
my editor doesn’t find any horrible problems with the next draft.
As a result of The
Wizard’s Heart being pushed back, The
Guild Conspiracy, the second Chroniker City novel, will have a later
publication date. I can’t start writing it until the fantasy novel is
published. That’s just the way of things. Depending on how drafting goes, I might be able to publish the book by the
end of the year, but realistically, I’m looking at March of next year, and that’s
with a great big helping of optimism.
And now, in order to facilitate actual writing and
publishing of my own books, I’m cutting back on my freelance editing. I just do
not have the time to work on other writers’ stories and my own. I have to choose, and because clients are paying me
now, they get priority. I don’t want anything—beyond being a full-time parent—to
take priority over my writing. If not for my editing, I’m pretty sure The Wizard’s Heart would be published by
now, and I’d be well into writing The
Guild Conspiracy. But, it seemed like a good idea at the time, and I’ve
learned a lot from the editing projects I have done. That’s not to say I’m not
going to quit editing altogether. I have a few clients that I’m hanging on to
and will edit future projects for them until I deem that my time—and their
money—is better spent elsewhere. Truth is, I just want to write again. Maybe if
I wasn’t taking care of a six-month-old, I could do both the editing and the
writing each day, but it’s just not possible. I basically get to choose two,
and I would rather choose writing over editing. That’s just how I feel. So, I
may take on more editing projects in the future, but I’ll be extremely
selective in what I edit.
So, that’s where I am right now. I plan to start the next
draft of The Wizard’s Heart in early
June, hopefully finishing in July for publication in August. Things may go more
or less quickly depending on how I handle the revisions. Once The Wizard’s Heart is published, I’m
going to read over The Clockwork Giant to
refamiliarize myself with Chroniker City and Petra, and I plan to make a few
improvements to the story as I go—nothing major, just strengthening what is
already there. Then, I plan to dive into plotting The Guild Conspiracy again. I have a plot outline already, but I expect
it needs some fine-tuning before I start drafting. That puts me at probably
starting the first draft in September. Assuming the book is 80,000 words, which
is what I’m planning, it will take me roughly three months to draft, finishing
by the end of November. And then of course, it has to sit and mellow before I
move on to the next draft.
Writing takes time. But I’m doing the best I can with the
time I have.
No comments:
Post a Comment