The End Is Near

I am two chapters away from being finished with the first draft of my third novel. Some of the chapters are very skeletal, and I'm alright with that for now. With over 280 pages so far, I am securely in novel-length territory, and I know that it will be the perfect size after I've written those two chapters and fleshed out the rest.


As I near the end of the first draft, I'm thinking about all of the things that I like about it, however rough it may appear at the moment. For me, the writing process for me is a discovery process. While I start with an outline, the real fun in writing comes from what wasn't in the outline--details, characters, plot points. For example, my really thin outline might say that they go to Sybil's house to see if she knows anything that will help. So, I'm on my way to Sybil's house, but I didn't realize that she lived in a houseboat until I got there. Sybil and her houseboat weren't in the early outlines. I'm not even sure how she came about or why I decided that I needed her. I'm not sure about the origins of many parts of the story, and that's why I call it a discovery process. All in all, it's still exciting to see how an idea becomes something complete, tangible, and multifaceted.

So, what's the next step?

After I complete the first draft of these two chapters, I'm going to go through and make a brief to-do list. This isn't going to be a thorough list of everything, but just some things that I want to make sure I remember when rewriting and editing. There are scenes that need to be added, some that might need to be rearranged, and possibly some things that I need to crop or leave out entirely.

After I make the list, I'll shelve the draft for a while and get to work finishing the first draft of my middle grade novel. Even if I don't publish anything in 2019, my goal is to get at least two rough drafts under my belt. Then, going forward in 2020 and beyond, my goal is to write a new rough draft per year and complete an already-written rough draft and publish it. If I can do more, that's good, but for now, I have a real job.