First Draft Fury

Blog No. 356

I suppose this is going to be mostly an update. I’ve so far avoided reviewing the two events that happened early in the month (that were steamrolled by the Neon Heart behind the writing posts). I may get to them in the future, but it’s already been a while and if I let it go too far, I will probably skip it. The only thing that’s happening right now, though, is the first draft of Broadcast Wasteland. I did a little post over on Adventure Wolds Press about what Christian and I are working on, but I was a little vague as I was trying to encapsulate a few things on one short post. So, I’ll go into more detail about it here. Even though there isn’t that much to get into in the first place. Basically, I’m currently writing the first draft of the next novella and I’m trying to do it in a month.

I probably won’t get it finished by the end of September, though. But that’s not to say I’m not doing well. I’m averaging about a thousand words a day and I only missed one day when I was under the weather and spent the evening in bed. Other than that, it’s been writing with Elly, writing with Christian, writing with Brittni, writing with Christian and Elly, writing with Brittni and Elly, but not writing with Christian and Brittni for some reason. I’d suspect they’re the same person (like Polkaroo) but I’ve seen them in the same place at the same time.

I’ve gone out every evening after work and in the day when I’m off. I’ve managed over 18 000 words as of Tuesday, and hopefully over 20 000 by today. Of course, Broadcast Wasteland is the third novella in the Synthetic Albatross series and I plan on releasing it in early April (like Neon and Thinking). I hope to keep it in the middle of the first two in terms of length and I seem to be on track with that. I’m, maybe, halfway. I’m focusing on the project earlier than I did for the previous two as well, since Neon went fairly smoothly, but in the end I could have used another week or two. Also, because I hadn’t started writing it (other than a first chapter during my down time at work) and the other two took months to finish.

I expect I’ll be done in the first week of October, and I’ll start edits right away (or maybe after a short break to work on something else). I won’t keep up the every day writing/working (I doubt I could) but it’s been good all around so far. It’s a step in the right direction in a lot of ways. I’ve meant to start getting my first drafts done faster, and this will be the most I’ve written in the shortest amount of time (if I finish on schedule). I’m ahead of anything else I’ve done so far. I also want to add a second round of beta reads this time too. The people who read Neon for me last year did an excellent job, but that book was an anomaly. It flowed out of me as if it were divine providence. I’m technically going faster with Broadcast, and it seems to be flowing pretty well (other than a chapter that I’m pretty sure I’m going to cut in the second draft) but with more time, I can do even better.

Also, I already have a cover in the works by local comic artist and graphic designer, Glen Hawkes. In no time at all, he’s sent me three rough sketches that are already good enough to be covers. I’m going to try to do some writing for his comic series, The Misadventures of Bowling Ball in turn, and I hope I can be as helpful to him as he has been to me. I may try to hit him up for a banner and some other good-good graphics based on the cover that I can use for promotions and the like. I’m getting a bit ahead of myself, though, again. I still have the first draft to finish and this week is going to be a challenge with a full schedule. I also have all the editing to do, the layout, the printing setup, the promotional stuff, some kind of packaging design, distribution, and I still have to figure this ebook stuff out. Then it’s back to the novel. For now, though. Head down and fingers typing.