The second draft is done

I've just completed the second draft of my new novel, which unfortunately still doesn't have a title...which is weird, since titles usually come so easily to me.

I'm a little happier with the way it's turning out, but it's still going to need a great deal of work. The main character is now much more of a real person to me.

I think this novel has been more difficult because it's basically told from just the main character's perspective. There are no chapters, or even scenes that don't feature her. Usually my novels bounce from character to character, but hopefully this will make her a likeable character...sure she can be a little petulant at times, and she might cry a bit too much, but she's also a teenager. But I think she's believable because I can see bits of all three of my daughters in her.

Now the book sits for a little while, and then I'll get back to another draft. I'm figuring AT LEAST two more drafts to get it where I want it to be.

We have a rough draft

I typed the last words of the very rough draft of my new novel today. This one is definitely going to take a lot of work to fix. It's shorter than I wanted, which isn't a surprise. I don't include much description in my rough drafts (yeah, I know there's not much in my final drafts either), but that will lengthen it, and I will have to add several scenes to make sense of some of the things I wrote as I was going.

With my main character being a teenager, I'm debating whether to market this one as mainstream SF or YA SF, but I guess I have time to figure that out, as it will be at least three more drafts before I'm done...at least.

And I still need a damn title!

Progress on the book...so far

My new novel has now reached 40,000 words, so I thought I'd give an update on the progress. This book has taken me on so many unexpected twists and turns that it's going to take a great deal of revision. There are entire scenes, and possibly even entire chapters that will have to be created during my first revisions...of course I have to finish the book first.

There are parts of this book that I love, and there are parts of this book that I hate. The biggest difference from my past novels is that this one is told entirely from one character's POV, a teenage girl. That alone has created numerous challenges, but it has been fun.

I'm looking forward to finishing the first draft soon, but there will be more revisions on this one than what is typical for my work, as it just needs more revisions, but hopefully in a few months, I will have a nice new novel. My fifth, or sixth if you count the one I co-wrote.

Still don't have a title though...

WIPS

As the new year starts, I thought I'd give an update on what I'm currently working on. Since my first writing book, Do You Really Want to be a Writer? was Nomadic Delirium Press' second best seller of the year, I'm hard at work on Do You Really Want to be a Science Fiction Writer? About 25% of the way through the 1st draft.

The new novel sits at just over 35,000 words, and I will hopefully be finishing the very rough draft soon. This one has been a battle, but I think I'm happy with the way it will ultimately turn out.

I'm working on two supplements for the new Ephemeris 2.0 RPG, and I've also started work on a brand new RPG that I think will be a departure from the first three I've created. There will be more on this in the near future...I hope.

There are a couple of other things that I'm working on in between these, but these are the titles that I'm sure I'll finish, and that I'm excited about.

Keep an eye on this blog and my homepage at http://www.jalanerwine.com for more.

 

Writing is hard work!

The first ten thousand words of my new novel flew by, and I have to admit that even I was impressed with some of my writing (usually I hate my stuff.) The next ten thousand words were a struggle, but I kept slogging through. The ten thousand I'm on now have been a tooth and nail struggle just trying to get each word out.

Anyone that tells you that writing is easy, or that they could write a novel if they just had the time is insane! Writing is hard work!

10,000 words

That's how much progress I've made on the new novel. Hopefully I'm not jinxing myself, but I've never had a novel go as smoothly as this one is so far. I'm really enjoying the book and the characters. This is also the first time that I've written a novel in which all of the scenes are told from the perspective of one character. Hell, a lot of my short stories are told from multiple perspectives, so this has been an adventure, but so far it's a fun adventure.

Hopefully I'll have this in the hands of my readers by the end of the year, but you never know what life might throw at me...