Posted in The Shadow Men, Writing
The Dark Lands Week 16
It took one really late night but I did finish draft number three this week. I went through and made all of the grammar corrections my wife found. Cleaned up some awkward sections. Went back and rewrote part of an earlier chapter to make it fit the actions of a later chapter.
I also did a search of the word “pretty” which I noticed had slipped into too many of the sentences. When I say too many I really mean many. I took it out completely. I would say things like, “pretty sure”. I didn’t even notice I was doing it while writing but when I read the story out loud it was pretty obvious.
I also did a search for the conjunction “but”. I apparently think that it is the greatest conjunction of all time. I completely overused it. Sloppy writing, so I went back and tightened it up.
This week I let the story take a baby step out into the wild. We are in Ashland, Oregon for the Shakespeare Festival with my wife’s cousin. He is a big fantasy reader. I brought a copy of my book with me and decided to let him read it. He finished half of it last night and said he couldn’t put it down. He seemed genuinely enthusiastic so I have survived my first outside reader with a good grade.
I have been thinking a lot about the second book this last week. I am planning on starting it by Wednesday. I have a working title for it and I will continue my goal of 1,000 words a day. At that pace the first draft will be done by October. I will then go through the same editing process which I hope will allow me to be done with the editing by December. This will allow me to start the third book by the beginning of the year.
I am going to let a few more people read the first book and then the agent hunt begins. I feel strongly that what I wrote isn’t bad. I am not sure if it is good enough but it isn’t bad. I have a list of agents and I have begun researching which ones I will try first. I will probably write my query letter on Monday. I am not sure when I will send the letter out but I hope to have the process started before the end of July.
In the mean time this is the last complete update for book one. Next week my updates will center on book two with occasional references to what is going on with the editing and submitting process of book one. It’s time to return to the Dark Lands and my characters. See you next week when I reveal the working title and my first new preview of the story.
