If you’re wondering why it’s “part 2” and where “part 1” is, I took a week of vacation in June and I spent it working on a book, and I just finished another week of vacation at the end of October to do the same. Different book. Long story short, I burned myself out in June. I pushed myself to finish a draft of the last book in the Witch Queen series. I finished it, but OMG it burned me out.
I couldn’t write for a month and a half.
So, my goal was to not only get writing done but also avoid burnout. And, for the most part, I was successful.
First, I paced myself.
My goal at the start of the week was to get to the midpoint of my current WIP, which is the sequel to The Blood Enchantress, my romantic dark fantasy. I’d written the rough draft up to about the midpoint, but there were a lot of things I needed to think about and ideas I needed to let simmer in my head, and then once I’d let those ideas cook, I knew I needed to restart the rough draft at the beginning. So I did. My goal for the week was to catch up to where I’d paused the first rough draft. It was very doable with a whole week.
(Very valuable author advice: set realistic goals)
However, not only did I catch up to where I’d stopped the first rough draft, but I FINISHED THE ROUGH DRAFT.
Oh, just in case you didn’t hear that: I FINISHED THE ROUGH DRAFT.
I can’t tell you how cathartic it was to be done, and how amazing, refreshing, reliving, rewarding it is to be able to say that I am done with the rough draft.
It needs a lot of work and revision, but now I have a starting point. I know the plot. I know the things I need to think about, to let simmer on the backburner of my mind. I know the dynamics between the characters. I know where the story beats fall. I have the foundation off which the banter, twisty scenes, foreshadowing, and subtle context cane be built upon. The bones of the story are there.
From here, the story will only get better.
It has taken so long to get into this story. After the burnout in June, I couldn’t get into any of my WIPs. I’d also read (and DNF’d) several lackluster fantasy/romantasy books that really left me feeling underwhelmed by my own fantasy story. I wrote the outline for Wraith last year, during the finish revisions for The Blood Enchantress, and it’s taken me this long to get back into it.
There were weeks where I thought I wasn’t going to write the book, and it was going to live in the WIP graveyard folder on my computer. I opened the doc several times and just stared at it. Opened Minecraft instead. Or Hytale. OR that Dressmaker game. (It’s surprisingly fun.)
But, the rough draft is done. I did it.
Now, the fun begins.
I’m kidding. It’s all fun.
I enjoy the whole process, even the bits that are stressful and emotionally taxing.
But, serious: set realistic goals.
My goal was to catch up to where I’d paused at the midpoint. I had a rough draft up to the scene before the midpoint scene, and the rest of the story was still in outline form. The part that I’d already rough drafted wouldn’t take as much creative energy as the second half. I know how I write, generally how fast I can get through a draft which depends on the draft and how I feel creatively, so I knew that getting through the midpoint was a reasonable goal.
I got to the midpoint by Wednesday. I did a lot of writing on Wednesday. I think I wrote somewhere about 6k, which is impressive for me. Anything over 5k is impressive. I can’t do that every day. That’s how I burn myself out. So, Thursday wasn’t as productive. Neither was Friday. Or Saturday. Or Sunday. But I wrote a little everyday. I got through 2-3 chapters ever yday.
A big reason why I was able to get it done was the shift between later draft mindset and rough draft mindset. I had to be in a later draft mindset, which is more line editing and word choice and clarity, for the Witch Queen series. For Wraith, I struggled to switch into rough draft mindset which is more story, big plot point, who-where-how. A rough draft is the big picture, just getting the story on the page, without worrying about repetition, chunky dialog, or info dumping. A rough draft isn’t pretty or engaging to read. It’s a lump of coal that needs to be cooked by revision into a diamond.
Being able to switch gears into rough draft mode helped me make big progress.
I don’t know if I’m going to jump right into drafting. It depends on how I feel this weekend when I open my writing folder. We’re also heading into the holiday season. Things get a little hectic, and I don’t want to feel like a deadline is looming for a WIP.
I also have several WIPs that I’d like to get to. I’ve been thinking about that ghost hunter horror. I’ve been thinking about a dark fantasy series. I’ve been thinking about returning to a romantasy that I wrote back in like…2020, put on pause, and then never came back to.
It depends on what calls to me. I’ve stopped trying to force myself to work on things. I need to feel the call to the project first. I want my heart to be in it.
(That is one reason I’m leaning toward indie publishing for my horror. I want it to be on my terms.)
So, that’s my update. I finished the rough draft for my WIP, “Wraith.” It will be a while before it’s ready for publication. Like at least a year before my editor even looks at it. I revise a minimum of 3 times before anyone else looks at it, sometimes more.
I also have notes for book 3 in this series. I didn’t set out to write a trilogy. The Blood Enchantress was written as a standalone.
And here we are.
