I finished draft 1 of novel 2, tentatively titled "The Spirit Thief" at 10 last night. It clocks in at 54,600 words, which is too short, but I'm not worried. I skipped over a lot at the end, and I'm going to be adding several scenes in the edit. The final word count should be around 65-70k, putting it in prime marketability range.
Now, it's time for two weeks off while I move, plan novel 2, do some world building, and figure out how to solve all the problems I glossed over in this draft. I've got my work cut out for me.
Here's the schedule (Monday to Monday):
8/27 - 9/10: Move in, world build, brainstorm for edits, let the work sit. Brain storm for book 2 to see if I need to add any set up.
9/10 - 10/8: First edit, fix all plot issues, get my word count up, fix characterization, add in foreshadowing, basically turn a rough draft into a finished draft.
10/8 - 10/15: Let draft sit again, write first draft of query letter, synopsis, etc. Put together a spreadsheet of agents to contact.
10/15 - 11/5: Second edits. This is the final sweep, clean up readability, word flow, check pacing, grammar, etc.
11/5-12/3: Print up and hand out reader copies. Do spot edits, revise query letter and synopsis.
12/3-12/31: Incorporate reader comments, do one final read through chapter by chapter, prepare queries for mail out.
1/2: Mail out first batch of queries. After that, mail out 5 queries per week until it sells or I get sick of being rejected.
1/3: Start writing new book.
A nice, spread out schedule, I think. This time I want to be SURE the book is as fantastic as I can make it before mailing it out. For right now, though, I'm going to take a breather and bask in the glow of doneness (and type out some of these ideas that have been poking at me lately).
Two novels down, infinity to go.
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