Hello everyone! I wanted to drop a blog post to update everyone on the status of my writing. It’s been a few months, and I didn’t want anyone thinking I’d stopped. I’m still going strong writing and editing but I’ve tweaked a few things. Well, more than a few as it turns out.

I’ve taken my two novels, placed them on a virtual cutting board, and sliced them into manageable chunks. I then glued them into three books in different states of readiness, and now I’m filling in the blanks. So here’s where I was.

• Book 1 was 135k words
• Book 2 was 147k words

After slicing it up I ended up with:

• Book 1 was 86k words
• Book 2 was 117k words
• Book 3 was 69k words
• Not Publishing 10k words

I then set out to write Book 1 to a new satisfying conclusion. My goal is 110 – 120k words per book, which according to my market research is normal for a self-published space opera. Publishers might not touch it, but I’m not going traditional route so I’m fine.

That takes us to about 32 days ago according to Twitter. Give me a follow over there and I’ll follow back if you want to read more randomness about my writing or our new family members arriving soon (see below).

So where are we today, 32 days in the future from my tweet? Well, my THE END for novel 2 was premature and bittersweet but my novels are better for it.

I went heads down, outlined my butt off, and started writing. I’ve always had a lot of ideas where I wanted to take the plots, but the challenge was taking them far enough in another 30k or so words without ending short. That’s were iteration on outlines comes in, and I love me some outlines.

About a week’ish later I had a solid outline in place after mulling it over on walks and random house chores. Then it was back to Ulysses and a few weeks later I finished.

So that’s my 3rd THE END for 2 books. I know, weird right. I’ve been heads down editing in ProWritingAid ever since and also using Siri to read to me. I’ve written about it before but holy smokes it helps to have her read my book out loud. Choppy writing or poorly imagined scenes pop out at me listening to them far more than reading them.

So here’s where we are today:

• Book 1 was 126k words, self-edited, ready for edits and betas
• Book 2 was 117k words, being self-edited
• Book 3 was 69k words, the outline is being written to fill gaps
• Reader magnet, the outline is being written

Let’s be honest, the pandemic has left most people with time on their hands. For me I’ve used some of that time on my books, and they’re better for it.

So today I’m working on finding an affordable editor. Oh yea, that’s an entire different blog post. I’ll queue one up on that little tangent and share my journey there. There, I queued it up ?

I’m about to send my book to a few beta readers today and hope to get a final edit round soon. Then I’ll do the same with book 2. My goal is still to release when the three books are done plus a reader magnet. The fourth will be being written when I’m releasing and will do pre-orders for the four of them as they go live.

I hope everyone is doing well in these challenging times. I will leave this little picture here of a few new family members that’ll be joining us in a few more weeks. We’re all super excited.

That’s Pepper on the left and Cheddar on the right.

Enjoy and stay safe!