The Dark Lands Book 2 Week 8

August 22nd, 2009 by 801red

I am learning a lot about myself as a writer through this process. Book two has taken me longer to write than book one. Part of that is because of the rewriting of book one (which I am doing at the same time) and part of it is that I have had to be a little more deliberate in my storytelling. I need to make sure the two books flow and find myself checking back into my notes and rereading parts of book one.

I finished the first draft of the first book in ten weeks. I am guessing it will be about week twelve for the second book. I haven’t really taken any time off from writing either novel since March. I have either been writing or rewriting since then. I think that I am going to take a break between book two and book three. I might write a few comic scripts or try my hand at a few short stories.

I have been struggling with my final rewrite of book one. I received some very good suggestions from a friend whose judgement I trust. It has been hard for me to work through the suggestions that I wanted to implement and the ones I didn’t. My problem was that some of the suggestions I think I did do later in the book. Some I deliberately had held out of the book and planned to use in book two. The ones that were really hard were the ones that I thought were good suggestions but really changed the tone and style of the book I am writing. It has left me muddled.

I finally asked a published author a few questions about what was troubling me and thankfully his answers cleared the cobwebs out of my head. Now I am happy to say that the rewrite will be done some time tomorrow. I will then send it off to a few more people who graciously agreed to read it. Then I begin agent hunting in earnest.

Ultimately, I still feel that I have accomplished what I wanted to with these books. I got my head straightened out. I proved that I can sit down and meet a daily goal. I completed my novel and will shortly complete my second. Before the year is out I will have finished three books totaling over 1300 pages (best guess).

I feel more confident and competent on the second book and I am still having a great time. I am happy. I am a writer. Now I just need to keep getting better, so I can add published to the writer part.

1 Comment »