Writing Update: Reaching "The End"

petrini1

Oct 7

I have lost track of exactly which draft I'm on of the first book in my teen science-fiction series. But last week I met with my friend Lawrence, who created the universe we're setting this series in, and came up with the series idea in the first place. A few days after our meeting, I reached the end of the draft, and for the first time, felt enough closure on a draft of it to type, "THE END."

I'm currently running back through the manuscript with a list of questions for myself and items that I need to make consistent throughout. And then I am handing it off to Lawrence for its very first real edit since it became a whole manuscript. He's seen some individual chapters, but never the whole thing.

Currently it's running about 87,000 words. That's longer than our original plan (70,000 words) but I don't think it's excessive. As I got into the first draft, I decided 70,000 was never realistic for this book, given the number of point-of-view characters. I suspect I can cut it some, probably to between 80,000 and 85,000 -- unless we decide to cut one of a series of conflicts, in which case I may be able to get it to 75,000. I'm leaning against that right now, but Lawrence will come to it with fresh eyes; I'll see what he thinks.

So, I'm more finished with this book than I've been before. But still not quite finished. If you are a novelist, you are probably familiar with this stage.

In the meantime, I used my writing retreat in Italy this summer to jump right into the second book in the series. Once I get this first book to Lawrence, I will go back to that manuscript. But before I continue writing, it's probably time to come up with at least a sketchy outline, since I started without one, in order to make the best use of my retreat time. I do not regret that at all, by the way. The retreat was so productive! I felt like I got a really good handle on the second book.

But first, to finish Book 1....

A scene from the writing retreat at Lake Trasimeno. Our patio here is in Tuscany. The lovely lake you can see to the left is in Umbria. The scenery and my writing buddies were amazing! I plan to attend again next year.