Speedwell War – Draft 2 - Status Update 1

OK, so I took two weeks off from writing…here on my blog. Not what I intended, but there it is. During that time, I’ve gone through and performed a red-line edit of a hardcopy of Draft 1. My red pen bled a lot. I created a time line convertor to translate from things like “[+5 months, +2 weeks, +5 days]” to “Saturday, July 11, 2235”. I also listed out the scenes by number and a short description so I could see how the story events cluster and where time scrolls without much happening. Very enlightening.

I found some discrepancies in my date notations, like the first two chapters only notated weeks or months passed, not days, so everything was happening on Tuesdays. Plus, I missed time cues in the text at least twice, spreading an event and the reporting of that event too far apart. All of those corrections are now scribbled into the redline copy.

Additionally, making a complete read-through after finishing the writing let me see where I left gaps in the story or forgot to work out when some important events actually happen, which is critical when there’s a war on. I wrote in place holders for those scenes so I know where I need to add material. All told, I’m adding about 15 new scenes to the manuscript in order to cover everything that needs to be covered for the baseline story to actually flow with no gaps. I think I still want to add additional intrigue scenes that serve to enhance the political tensions, but I may need to wait for Draft 3 before I do that.

Finally, as I read through the manuscript in its entirety, I noted scenes where the writing was something I’m proud of and where I was just dropping text on the page to get to the next bit. Those latter sections will need some polishing (or re-writing) to get up to snuff.

As I haven’t touched the electronic file the past two weeks, the word count hasn’t changed from last time (and I can’t get to it while I’m writing this), so I’ll update the word count next time.

Later!

Chapter 8: Persecutions - Draft Complete : Novel: The Speedwell War - Draft Complete!

So, remember when I thought I had tons more to go before I finished the last chapter and the draft and it would take until the end of September?

I was wrong.

I didn't even get into September, I finished the first draft on the last day of August.  Sweet!

There were some big blocks of bullets in my outline that I thought were going to fill some pages and I found a better way of presenting the information by combining them with another scene and just summarizing.

Final Draft Word Count: 62,084 words

Part of me wants to set aside the draft and let it cool a couple weeks before starting the big work of Draft B corrections and additions.  Part of me wants to get started immediately.  I think the latter is the better path.  I will take the Labor Day weekend off and resume next week.

The next step is hammering out the timeline so I can verify that it is not time crunched and could actually happen in the time allocated.  The entire novel covers just under 10 months, but there are some big time gaps at the front and I don't want things to happen at too quick a pace.  It is science fiction and needs the verisimilitude of reality to work best.

Later!

Chapter 8: Prosecutions - Status Update 2

The more I move forward, the more I realize I need to fix things behind me.

I was going through my outline to incorporate the various chicken-scratch notes I've added as I work my way through the outline and discovered a discrepancy in how I'm notating time passing.  I did not have a particular date for the start of the novel, so rather than get bogged down, I just started listing the date for each scene as a function of time passed since the beginning of the book.  So, for instance, the first scene in Chapter 8 happens on (+7 months, +1 week, +3 days).  Easy and simple to count and I know how long passes between any two scenes in the novel.

The tricky part is the first and last week of a month.  The first week is the +0 weeks and the last week is +3 weeks, days +1 to +7.  Well, I forgot that in the middle of Chapter 6 and have a month with five weeks or 35 days.  Every date after that one is off by a full week.  Pain. In. The. Ass.

I'll straighten this out when I finish the first draft and go back for the first edit.  In the meantime, I've corrected the "dates" for Chapter 8 and they will be correct for the end of the first draft.  As I'm writing this chapter, I'm realizing I'm going to need to telescope the time covered as there are several trials happening.  Some will be important, some will be necessary background, but they will all take time.  Plus, I just want to discuss outcomes, not add "in court" scenes.  Probably.  We'll see what it looks like when I finish the draft and then tweak it like everything else.

Word Count: 60,062 words

I'm only averaging one evening a week for writing, which seems to be drawing this out, but I only have so many Husband Points to spend at any one time.  I'm hoping to be done with the first draft by the end of September and start mapping out the timeline to see what kind of tangles I've left for myself.  Then I can start plugging in the scenes I "missed" as I was writing or decided I needed to expand on.

I've been looking at a program called Scrivener, particularly the Windows version.  I've been writing in MS Word as it is what I use for my day job and I'm very proficient in it.  That said, Word is word processing software, not writing software and there are things Scrivener does that I want for the editorial pass, like being able to move entire scenes in a drag and drop fashion on a virtual cork board.  Plus, Scrivener exports in multiple formats, like .mobi, which is something I want to be able to do on my own.  I haven't decided how I want to publish, but I want options.

That's it for now.  Later!

Chapter 8: Prosecutions - Status Update 1

OK, this will be a quick update due to time constraints.

The restructure of Chapter 8 is complete and the outline expanded from three pages to five page in length.  I've added the first newly written scene (as opposed to the two scenes pulled over from Chapter 7) and I am please at the way things are shaping up.

Word Count: 59,030 words

What?  I told you it'd be quick this time around.

Later!

Chapter 7: War Comes to Speedwell - Draft Complete!

Hoody-hoo!  Chapter 7 done!

I wrapped up Chapter 7 over the weekend in two ways: I finished writing the material in my draft for Chapter 7 AND realized that there was a better chapter break two scenes earlier than where I put it.  What does that mean?  It means that there was a better place to end the chapter from a story flow perspective, so I moved the chapter break forward.  The transferred scenes are more expository (for scenes near the end of the book) and fit better as the start of Chapter 8.

I still need to map out Chapter 8 better and flesh out my (somewhat sketchy) notes for the chapter.  Things still need to happen to wrap up events in the book, but some other stuff needs to also happen to set up things for Book 2.  So I might not get much added to the word count of the story this week, but I will be doing noticeable adding to my outline.

Word Count: 57,239 words

Later!

Chapter 7: War Comes to Speedwell - Status Update 4

Closing in on the end of Chapter 7.  I have about half a scene (really a series of news reports) to finish and then the chapter is done.  I hope to get that written tomorrow as my wife has other plans and I have the evening to myself.

Chapter 8 is going to take some work.  I've looked over my notes and realized they are terribly sketchy and not as fleshed out as earlier chapters were.  So next week's writing time is more likely to be planning time to better flesh out what I want to happen and how.  The ending has to be solid and stand on itself, but also start laying the ground work for the next book.  (Yes, there will be a next book - it will be more of an exploration story with time running out politically.)

Word Count: 56,753 words

That's it for now.  Later!

Chapter 7: War Comes to Speedwell - Status Update 3

It has been two weeks since the last time I got in some writing.  This was due to a combination of being busy and needing some downtime.  I finally spend a couple hours today writing (just before writing this).  I'm working on a large-ish combat scene and needing to work out the particulars of where things are and why there of all places.  This caused me to move the action from Warka to the outskirts of Lublin, which is a more reasonable location for what is about to happen.

Once I get the combat scene done, I have one more "news update" scene and the chapter should be complete, so next week is a likely time for that to happen, maybe the week after - depends on how long I get to write on Friday.

Word Count: 54,944 words

My outline for Chapter 8 is only six pages long, but I know I'm going to have to flesh those scenes out a good deal and probably add some new scenes to wrap up the first book.  I think I'm looking at a first draft of between 70,000 to 80,000 words.  Then I'll set it down a week or two and start diagramming out what I have and where I need to add "missing" scenes (scenes I didn't realize I needed until I was in the midst of writing).  Part of that will be expanding the number of corporate scenes to lay groundwork for events in the second novel.  Then the whole thing will need a thorough editing and I'll be willing to show it to people.

That's it for now.  Later!