This is something I’ve been planning for a while to help keep me updating and working. My first ‘monthly roundup’ is going to be a bit of a belated one, because although I haven’t done much of any writing work in the month of September yet, I also haven’t done much of anything else, including writing updates on this blog.
I’ll start with the reason this update is a late one…
Emergent Situation
Unfortunately, much of my time in August — and all of my time in September until today — has been taken up with caring for one of my cats. He hasn’t been well for some time, but after several unpleasant and expensive vet trips he is hopefully on the road to recovery. He needs constant attention right now, so between me and my family we don’t have a lot of time to be doing anything else. I’m currently writing this while the others watch him.
And now on to the actual writing stuff!
The Shadow of the Ruin — Re-Write
My big project for the last two months has been working on my complete rewrite of The Shadow of the Ruin, the first book in my current trilogy project. It’s too long, and the writing isn’t as strong as the later two — an inevitable side effect of it being my first serious creative writing project.
Throughout July and August, I have been working on finalizing the chapter scripts for the rewrite, and I was able to finish the last ones right at the end of August before everything came to a head. Here is what I accomplished in August on the rewrite:
27 chapter scripts, totaling 71,253 words and 31 hours of productive writing time
That brings the scripting for the rewrite to a finish. Depending on how the situation with my kitty develops, I expect to begin actual prose writing either later this month or early next, with the target of completely finishing the rewrite by the end of this calendar year.
The Second Sundering — Editing
My trusted alpha readers (thanks, Lisa and Morgan!) have returned their feedback for the first draft of The Second Sundering, and I worked on compiling that feedback into editing notes. I’ve actually spent some of today finishing that up, so I expect to get to work on the second draft this month.
The edits aren’t anything extensive or structure-changing, so I also expect to finish them this month.
The Quest for Publication
Sadly, I haven’t had the time and focus to do anything on the quest for publication. My querying is currently being held up by the complete rewrite of my first novel, so I don’t expect to get back on the querying horse until that’s complete.
The goal is still very much to find an agent in the year 2022, and get on the road to being a published fantasy author.
Future Projects
With the total completion of my first trilogy looming — by the end of this year, I should have a fairly complete form of all three novels ready to go — it’s time for me to start gearing up for my next writing project.
I already know what it’s going to be, and I’ve been taking notes and ideas for a while now. I won’t spill any secrets here, but a hint or too won’t hurt anything…
My next project will be:
- Single viewpoint
- Not a trilogy
- Set in a new original world
- In a very different direction as far as magic is concerned
And that’s all for now, folks!