There’s very little left to do for sections 1-3. Even my paid editor isn’t making sweeping changes, and my betas are only doing tweak corrections as they go.
And now, today, since my kids are sick and the baby’s slept almost the entire day, I’ve somehow managed to complete a rough draft for the entirety of section 4. That’s about 15k words in total (it’s the shortest section).
Not all of it was from scratch. I did have some bits and pieces written before, but nothing readable in the sense that it was all over the place. You could conceivably read through section 4 and follow the story now, though it’s painfully ugly at the moment.
Still, that’s got to be some kind of personal record, and I’m knackered. Also sick, because now I’m coming down with whatever the kids have got. Probably didn’t help that youngest literally threw up in my face this morning. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to have a mouthful of vomit in your eyes, drop me a note and I’ll describe it in detail for you.
Anyway. For those who regularly churn out such numbers in their authorial jobs, this achievement probably doesn’t sound like much, but writing new is always the hardest bit for me. I’m much more at home editing, editing, editing, and even rewriting; fresh ground is the toughest to plow.
Next up – whip my poor beloved betas and editors into action, and start the querying process sometime in April.
sunyi dean 