The Fifth Draft

Something new to add! (Because why add something old?) Progress in the sequel to my sci-fi novel, Firewatcher.

Previously on TomTheWriter.com (I just felt like I was updated an episode in some TV show):

• First draft (especially for a sequel) = I left them there. They have to end up over there. I wonder how we’ll get there.
• Second draft = We got there, but that was a bumpy ride and the plot holes require heavy equipment.
• Third draft = Of, so that motivation surprised even me! Well, I can’t ignore that. Ugh, but look at this writing. It looks like an engineer wrote it. Hey! I’m that engineer. OK, next draft gets creative and more of the funny gets added.
• Fourth draft = Be patient. I’ll get there.

I got there. I finished the fourth draft. The third draft was a story, but life was too easy on my characters. Their characterizations were fine, but they were supposed to be in an urgent and critical situation. Where was it? There were conflicts, but they were manageable. Everything resolved by the end, just like every episode of Star Trek, the Original Series (which hadn’t been culturally elevated at the time to attain Capitalization status.) Pushing more personal drama would seem artificial, which is ironic, considering this is fiction. 

Then came the Duh moment. The planet wasn’t trying to kill them. It wasn’t trying to save them, either. The colonists were about to be assaulted by the elements. They had to escape to a safer place, invent and build defenses, while also establishing the things that made the colony sustainable, like food. Figuratively, I had to write in the environment as if it was as active as any character, just like the real-world environment can’t be ignored.

Hence, the fifth draft.

Get busy with the weather, dude! Beyond that, I’ll skip any spoilers for folks who’ve found this site without having found a copy of Firewatcher. (Available on Amazon, of course, but also for free from some libraries, which I mention because I’m a fan of frugality. Even wrote a book about it, Dream. Invest. Live. Terrible for profits, but that’s my conundrum.)

Imagine taking a story and deciding to add a cantankerous, chaotic, powerful, and fickle into almost every scene. That’s a lot of rewriting, but also a lot of judgment calls. Real heatwaves are terrible, but after the first few days, the heat is mentioned less because everyone already knows about it. It was like adding the icing to the cake, but more like the filling that goes between the layers, messy but a great improvement – at least for the cake. Whether it is a great improvement to the book is ultimately up to the eventual readers. At least for this writer, it felt right. 

This draft created something that feels like a story. The earlier drafts were stories, too, but they were somewhat hollow. That’s not a surprise. The first draft is the barest of structures. Then, weld on the extra structure. Grind that down, maybe add some decorative elements. Take another look at it, and in this case, weave more substantial metal throughout to make it more solid.

Now, draft six looms. 

If I can find a printer, which is harder outside The Big City, I’ll print and bind the fifth draft, speed read it to see where the writing trips me and makes me stumble, and create a highlighted road map of what to fix. Ideally, the speed read is done within the hubbub of real conversations, with red pen and yellow highlighter marking pages to fix, but without fixing them, yet. Go with the flow because some beach reader is going to read the story that way. Hopefully, I can do it in a couple of days. Pens and highlighters do slow down the reading. After that, draft six.

There is no magic number for the number of drafts, but my books typically take from six to twelve. All start out rough. All eventually get a draft for grammar, et al., and one for formatting. That’s a limit of at least four. I’m already on five. Six will be more fluid, creative, and hopefully engaging dialog and narrative. Seven will probably be dedicated to managing the consistency of nomenclature and vocabulary, particularly to reflect the alien’s culture. Eight will probably be grammar (me) and Grammarly (the app but not the AI – ironic, considering the story is about humans’ reaction to AI). Nine will probably be formatting for publication. Sadly, I realize that ten might be another formatting pass because I rarely appease the software criteria on the first try.

Sometime in there, decide on a title and design a new cover. And then, there’s marketing and… And this blog will cover that later.

And I can hear, ‘But, you’re the writer. You’re in charge. Take your time.’ Yep. Nope. I’m already late. Christmas happens. Shopping happens. Early shoppers are just about to already happen. Having the book out in time for being under the tree is more than being done by December 24. Black Friday works, but people are already buying. They need time to learn that there is a book. OK. October. That’s what I am aiming at, but a profitable, practiced, and professional writer friend launched her book this week, in August. Maybe I’m just really early for 2025.

Last night, I celebrated with a beverage on the rocks while eating popcorn and watching some Shakespeare. Impressive and not even humbling because I have no illusions about the level of my work. Billy S. worked magic on many levels. I merely wanted to play with some ideas and consequences my mind was speculating on about AI and how we’d respond to it. I didn’t believe the projections for certain milestones to hit in 2100. I expected them in 2040. They showed up as I finished Firewatcher. If folks like the story (which many do, whew), that’s great. If they play with the ideas and implications, that’s great, too. I know that I’ve gained perspectives I hadn’t imagined, and that couldn’t have happened without me writing the story. My personal lessons may be sufficient justification for spending so much time with my characters and their situations. (My apologies to them for what I put them through. I hope they appreciated the fun parts.)

Normally, I’d take a week off from working on the book. It helps to clear the mind. This calendar crunch may move me to move faster. Stay tuned, which you must be doing if you are reading this far. Thanks. Now, time for a cup of tea.