Invasion Novel, The Next Step

Blog Post No. 449

I went back in this blog and looked up the first time I mentioned the Invasion Novel. I’m sure I spoke about it before, but the first time I called it the Invasion Novel was November 8th, 2018. The post was about finishing the first draft of The Neon Heart and how I was getting ready to start the first draft of the novel. I may have also said something about wanting to get the first draft done faster than it took me to write The Neon Heart, but clearly that didn’t happen. What has happened is that I’ve finally managed to finished the second draft of the Invasion Novel.

Like with every draft for every book and story I’ve written, it took way longer than I had planned. Though, I will point out that this time last year, I made really good progress on the first draft, finishing at the end of July. There was a mad dash to get to the end before starting Break/Interrupt in August, but I was pretty happy with the results back then. I expect to do the same thing with the third draft this year. That is, frantically rushing to finish before starting the next novella, Snow from a Distant Sky, in August.

As far as what I managed to get done in the second draft, I mostly just found a whole pile of things that I’ll have to fix for the third draft. Considering the lack of real progress, it took way too long (as I already said, all my writing and editing does). I did learn that for the next novel I’ll be better off giving the book a quick read and make notes for what has to be cut, fixed, and changed. Though, hopefully I’ll write the next book even faster and will be able to keep all the plot points in my head easier. Those are all things that will have to be discovered when I start the next novel, which will have something to do with a derelict space station, but I haven’t picked out a working title (or project name) like the Invasion Novel. At least, I don’t remember giving it a project name, so I’m going to just assume that I didn’t.

And I won’t worry about a name until Snow is done and I’m actually planning to start writing it (probably in April of 2022). For now, my mind is on the third draft of the Invasion Novel. I have the month of July to get at least the third draft finished and there is still a lot to trim and fix. I did mark out a few chapters that I thought could be cut, so I have at least that to go on, but there is one major thing to add to the first act so that the resolution in the third act makes sense. I tend to have more trouble with adding than I do with removing, so I’m not sure how that will go.

I find that my additions don’t naturally fit, even when I’ve been reassured by others that they can’t even tell what was added in the past. I suppose I’m at the beginning of the end for the Invasion Novel. I’m already starting to question the quality of the book and it won’t be long before I hate it. Hopefully I’ll be able to get it into a clean enough condition that I can get some outside opinions by the time I’m done draft four. Heck, maybe I’ll be a good writer and I’ll have the fourth draft finished before August and I can let some folks read it while I write the first draft of the novella. And maybe pigs will fly.