Rough Draft Finished

Well I just finished the rough draft of Hunted In Shadow.

I think all my fabulous writer friends are a lot more excited about that than I am, but I still have some malaise left over from this morning.

It came in considerably shorter (courtesy of all those bracketed spots I have yet to fill in) than I expected at 64,600.  I fully expect to come in at 80-85 when it’s fully fleshed out with all the small details included, the painting of the scenery done, and the actual, you know, character arc in place.  I tried to make one up after the fact when I was well into the story and it just doesn’t fly.  So that’s a major revision I know is coming.  In addition to several additional scenes I want to insert.

But right now I am closing the file on this project for at minimum a month.  No looking, no peeking.  I am going to take a vacation from it and work on something else.

On the upside, Pot and I did a whole lotta brainstorming on the new project today so that I actually know what the character arc is before I write! What a concept.  I’ve figured out the broad, big plot points for the whole trilogy, and most of them for Book 1, so I’m about ready to sit down and do some serious plotting on it.

In the meantime, I want to go back and revisit that novella I outlined a few months ago.  If I can get excited about writing it, I will tackle that first while still in the planning stages for Next Big Project.  I’d like to have something short and polished to give away free on my blog early next year, just to whet people’s appetites.

In the meantime, I have been ordered to celebrate, so I’m going to figure out what kind of dietary indiscretion I’m about to commit.