Two Zeroes Down!

I feel like the Count by this point. But yes, two down! One to go.

I did not expect with that post late July when I said I hoped to have a second zero draft done by fall that a) I would immediately start a new unplanned book, finish it, and find it solid enough to schedule for publication, or b) I would, in fact, finish another zero draft on the literal first day of fall. But I did, last night.

I’m particularly surprised because I’ve had this book in progress for over three and a half years and I’d resigned myself to the fact that I’d never finish it.

I rewrote the first 20K about four times.

It’s taken me that long to really figure out what the book is and what story I wanted to write. I started off thinking it would be a fun, semi-cozy sort of mystery. But while I like to read those…I cannot write them. It’s not sustainable for me to do for a book let alone a whole series. I like writing darker. I like writing weirder. So I rewrote the book in different POVs, different tenses, and felt like I finally got the voice down. Then I had a crisis of faith and abandoned it for another couple of months, but I needed a break before I tackled more Dweller revisions, and I thought I’d start poking it again.

Then, after writing over 12K words (that is not a typo) yesterday, I finished the very rough zero draft at last.

Working on a mystery is a very different kind of experience, even though that’s what I wrote many, many years before I did anything fantasy related, and I needed to learn–and relearn–different skills. So this one is going to require heavy revision and I think next time I’ll just write really lean and worry about layering in other elements later. Even having the full picture in my head is not the same as having the full picture in draft format.

There’s a lot in it I’m really happy with and excited to eventually share, however. At this point, I expect it’ll launch spring 2023, giving me a bit of time to work on sequels as well as other WIPs. Amazon won’t let me set up a preorder more than a year in advance but I might get it up on other stores soon.

The last thing I want is to be juggling another series but a different genre lets me stretch different muscles and, as always, there remains a chance that maybe this’ll be the thing that takes off. (I mean, realistically, probably not; there’s a venn diagram between what sells and what I write and they do not overlap. But! We can hope.)

I absolute credit my recent productivity with Patreon.

My sincerest thanks to everyone who has joined in at the weekly write-ins on Saturday nights. I set those up while I was a little manic on steroids, not really thinking it through and unsure whether anyone would even join. Of course Dina was quick to support me so it wasn’t just me showing up alone, and a few others have consistently been writing as well. That commitment was a push to get raw words in, which in turn helped shut off the inner editor and a lot of the pressure I feel to just write and reconnect with writing. Unlike other creative endeavors I’ve done over the years (painting, drawing, guitar, piano), I’ve always loved every aspect of writing. Even when it’s hard. I love drafting, I love revising, I love picking at a book and reading it past the point when I should be hating it.

Writing for publication means one often stops enjoying it, however, because everything becomes about other people’s needs and wants instead of one’s own. Shutting out those other voices and just focusing again on me and the stories I want to tell has made a huge difference in productivity.

Now with two zero drafts down (and an accidental new haunted house novel), I’ve got two other books on the schedule I haven’t started yet (Hell Fire, Elis #3; A Wild Kind of Darkness, Waverly #2) and another WIP I’m 50% through to hopefully finish…maybe by winter? I’m keeping pressure-free right now and my expectations low, but still trying to steal as much time as I can whenever I feel well enough to work to get as much writing done as I can. It would be nice to stay on a roll here.

Fingers crossed.

For now? I better nap lol.