The first draft of my third scifi novel is done! That description sounds like a buried lede. It is a work in progress. So am I. Deal with it. Meanwhile, I will celebrate it. I’ve already taken a mid-morning nap. Now, I put it aside for a month while I work on other things and my subconscious prepares for the next draft.
Oops. Pardon me. I have to send off a copy to a friend or two who are kind enough to store my off-site backups.
Okay. And that’s one example of how this process works; write a bit, remember something else that needs to be done with the book, remember things that have to be done in life.
I feel compelled to make this analogy of the process, again. Hopefully, I improve the imagery every time.
First Draft
It’s like making furniture. You can tell it is supposed to be a chair, but don’t plan to sit on it because the fasteners aren’t fixed.
Second Draft
It looks like a chair, but it probably wobbles, you can get splinters, but all the pieces are there, sort of.
Third Draft
It is a chair, but it needs to be sanded to get rid of the splinters, and maybe have some of the joints tightened up.
Fourth Draft
It better be good enough to sand and sit on, but look around for what may have been missed and what needs to be taken away.
Fifth Draft
It is a chair. Time to sand and polish and such. Maybe wear nicer work gloves.
Sixth Draft
Little things matter, like cushions and such.
Seventh Draft
Guess at pricing. Add price stickers and provenance proof, if necessary.
Eighth Draft
Final check before sitting on it or selling it.
That is not the way it works, because reality creates detours. It is, however, a way to visualize the process.
If someone was to read the first draft they’d recognize it as a book, but I’d be surprised if there weren’t plot holes, lots of typos, and a need for many more words. The story is there, but the descriptions of the settings are sparse. The allusions to other bits of culture, like references to specific episodes of Star Trek come later. Humor, gotta add it. Drama, gotta add it, and spread it out.
Currently, the word count is ~77,000 words. Add in those other things, those innocuous details, and the word count can grow 50%.
As I am writing, the imagery plays out in my head, but if I’m rolling through dialog, I don’t want to slow the pace and lose the thread as I try to spell and describe an iridescent landscape. This book has some orbital mechanics in it. I trained, and worked for a short time, as a mission planner, as an aerospace engineer. I want to get this right, or right enough, even though I haven’t done that work since 1998.
The next step, after my one month hiatus, is a speed-read. I’ll read it as quickly as I can, taking major notes, to see how much that chair wobbles and how many splinters it has.
The rest of the steps, well, that’s why there will be more blog posts. I expect this to take about two more years. Stay tuned.
tomthewriter.com 
Leave a comment