Hmm. Work on the book, or write this blog post? The blog post, evidently.
As I posted to social media recently,
“Just marking the date:
I’ve started the third draft of Fire Moon, the third in my scifi trilogy about folks who leave Earth to escape an AI, and find that they are now the aliens. Stay tuned.”
And I’m already adding words.
I’ve started editing the third draft. I had chronicled the start on social media, but I wanted to mark it here, too.
Why all this writing about writing? As a friend responded to my tweet;
“If this tease doesn’t make people crazy excited about seeing where this story goes, I don’t know what is.“
Crazy excited? Okay. As another friend said (paraphrased);
“You’re obviously an artist because you’ll keep doing this even if you don’t get paid.“
Yep.
Run a marathon. I did that a few times. 26.2 miles are 26 + 1 opportunities for milestones, literally. Kilometers are better, ~42 of them. Split them up further and the numbers get larger, but the intermediate steps become smaller.
I’ve started my third draft of my third scifi book and my…I’ve forgotten how many books I’ve written. One book at a time (usually, photo books are counted separately), one draft at a time. That’s how I make progress.
The first draft was seeing where the story went. There were two books preceding it (Firewatcher, Fire Race), which gave the story momentum. Where did it go? I didn’t know until I began writing.
The second draft was cleaning up obvious edits that I noticed in my speedread of the first draft. No big plot holes. (Yay!) Typos. (Shrug.) A few things to add, speedily.
The third draft is where words get added. I have a lot of the imagery in my mind, but the reader needs some direction, some additional descriptions. What was the weather? Did different characters have unique facial expressions? Did anyone have to scratch an itch? The first book, Firewatcher, described the ship, but there was little in the second book, Fire Race. Time to remind readers of the description. Lawrence, the geek, doesn’t get many lines, but in my mind, his expressions tell a different story than the rest. Get them into the book.
I’ve been writing books since 2001. By now, I have a fair idea of how I will work; story, clean it up, add details, smooth it out, check spelling, check grammar, check anything and everything as time allows. Know that there will be formatting issues. It all takes time. Releasing it now would be like selling a car without the bolts tightened, without primer, and maybe no place to put a license plate. It may get you there, but maybe not.
I’m hoping to be done in about a year, and I’m particular with the ‘about’. I’m retired. My goal is to tell a story. Money is secondary, at best. If I miss the 2027 Holiday sales, that’s okay, not preferred, but okay. Hey. I’m retired. I should start acting like it.
Writing, art, funny things. Many of us feel compelled to create stuff. I’m most impressed with folks who create with sawdust, solder, seeds, and such. I play with words and photos. Theirs is more useful. Mine is, well, me. I guess I am just more comfortable with the ephemeral.
So, back to that big file that is going to get bigger. But first, publish this, share it around social media,…and maybe take a nap. Hey, I’m retired; gotta practice that too.
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