by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
After about a month-long pause, I’ve started writing the third draft of my first novel. But given that the beta reader process is still going on — and I still want to read some more — I’m probably going to only do it in fits and starts until I really throw myself into things starting around Sept 1st.
But the outline I have is pretty strong (so far) and I think I can probably zip through the third draft pretty quickly, baring something I can’t predict. Once I finish the third draft, I am going to start to save up for someone professional or semi-professional to read the whole thing and give me some advice before I turn around and start to query things.
I also between now and September 1st hope to really think about not just the other novels in the series but a few scifi concepts I have rolling around in my mind. I’m still smarting over the really great scifi concept I had that turned out to be way too similar to Wool / Silo for me to continue it the way it was. I’ve come up with a reworked version with is very similar but it’s going to take me some time to game it out.
I really have to focus. I really have to think up ways to make this third draft a lot — A LOT — better. I have some specific person who is participating in the Beta Reader process that I fear is going to give me a pretty brutal critique of the novel. While it’s going to sting, I really need such brutality if I’m going to get a novel anywhere near being good enough to query.
But, in general, I’m very pleased with the novel I’m come up with. I think it’s going to be about 100,000 words this go round, rather than its current 80,000. I have come up with an idea for how to make the beginning of the novel significantly better.
