On a drafting roll

I’ve started Draft 4. This probably means nothing to most people, but to other aspiring and published authors, you know where I am.

On Sunday I sat down to write the third last chapter of my third draft only to find I had in fact finished. The end surprised me – not the content, but the fact that I had already arrived when I had been thinking that there needed to be more.

Once I’d (well my story) climaxed it did seem stupid (flat) to drag it out for the sake of a few chapters, especially when I could cover it in the chapter I wrote on Sunday morning.

Back on track

Back on trackIt’s been a chaotic year to say the least, and having some deadlines is helpful in providing distractions.

These last few weeks I have been back at uni (RMIT) and work (comms work at a local high school). Not surprisingly, life has rushed on at great speeds without waiting for me to catch up with it. There are things that were screaming at me for attention. So that is what I have given them.

Novel writing: the hard slog

I’m more than midway through my second draft of my young adult climate change fiction novel and I feel like I’m climbing an enormous mountain.
This is the hard slog. Now.
There is so much going on that I seem to spend more and more time staring at the words, out the window, or at nothing, just so I can think all of the tiny details through.
Draft one was the fun. Just write, as they say. And then the issues stand out to you. Draft two is ironing it all out, tying it all together and ramping it up.
Don’t get me wrong – I am still loving it. I am just being honest; it is a hard slog and I need my days when I summons up the energy for the next leg of my journey to the top of the mountain.