First Draft of Snow from a Distant Sky

Blog Post No. 459

It may not be a record for the most words written in the shortest amount of time (I’d have to do math to verify it) but it is a record for the fastest first draft I’ve ever written. In 29 days I managed to write just under 40 000 words and somehow managed to stop writing any more. That is to say, the last three installments in this novella series all went longer that I had intended (some much longer than others). But now it’s early September (and the weather has finally gotten a little cooler) and I’m done the first draft of the fifth novella and taking a short break before jumping into the edits.

You may have noticed, I’m a little proud of this one. It felt good to move at that speed, especially since I was getting back into the day job last month and I’m working at a couple new facilities (some with new, terrifying responsibilities). Also, being able to set myself a word count limit and stick to it (if even just) is an improvement. Really, the whole story flew by so quickly that I’m still surprised. I think there were only one or two days where I had to force myself to get started, though part of the reason for that was the pressure of having to get my daily writing in before, during, or after a shift at the day job.

At this point, I have no idea how big of a mess Snow from a Distant Sky may be. It felt good to write, but the proof is in the second draft. I may jump into it and find out that it’s a disjointed wreck with plot holes and continuity errors everywhere. But that’s the risk you take when you don’t plot out your stories. I had intended to spend more time plotting this one (mostly to keep the word count down) but I didn’t end up getting around to it (mostly because of the bugs indecent).

I started writing the novellas in August with Break/Interrupt last year since Broadcast Wasteland was started in September of 2019 and I felt like I was rushed with that one. Or, more specifically that I unfairly rushed the reviewers. Since Break/Interrupt went way long, the extra time turned out to be a necessity. Now that I’m done with the first draft of Snow, though, I have loads of time before the April release date. But, I’m well aware at how quickly time can vanish if you rest too heavily on your laurels. For now, I have a review to do for Christian Laforet‘s latest book (or is it C.M. Forest?) and I want to try and get a fourth edit of the Invasion Novel in before I get to the second draft of Snow.

I hope. I do need to take some time to distance myself from the first draft and get nice and critical for the editing process. If I take too much time, though, I’m defeating the purpose of starting early. Either way, I’m feeling pretty good right now. Especially since I was a little intimidated on this one. I’m also feeling a little sad since this will be my last novella for a while (I wrote about making that decision earlier this year). I did take a few days to do nothing, but I can’t let myself do that for too long or it gets to be a thing to get started again. So, I’m back to work and back to trying to balance everything without a real handle on anything. Just like being an adult.