Novel update and more
I am in the midst of the second draft of the novel I created during NaNoWriMo. My goal is a chapter a week. I started during the first week of January and I’m got three chapters into second draft, so it’s going well. It feels like a good pace, a pace I can sustain. The only downside is that I have about 24 chapters and at 4 a month, that’s a 6 month process. Not terrible, though I’d like to move a little faster. We’ll see how it goes.
My definition of ‘second draft’ is a version of the story that doesn’t make me wince, and doesn’t make me stumble when I read it out loud. I want each chapter to build logically to the next, and to have its own sense of movement, suspense and revelations. Once I have this novel in second draft form, I’ll have a select few readers give me feedback.
This is exciting, people! This plan and process is productive and doable. Even with the world trying to drop me into the dunk tank on a daily basis, this project is coming together. Working on this little novel gives me something to look forward to every day.
As for the world and its dunk tank filled with flames and sewage, I’m surviving, clinging to platform and not falling all the way in. My family is healthy and doing OK. My new house is warm and dry and very comfortable. My boy kittens are precious jerks. I’ve got a great therapist and a paying job I don’t hate and that I am able to do well. I really fucking miss hugging my friends. I miss being spontaneous about going to my favorite places, just hanging out where other people are doing their own thing. I don’t like the prospect of continuing to fight white supremacists who feel entitled to, well, everything. I don’t like it, but that’s where we are. We’ve got to climb out of the hole the Traitor in Chief and his cult and enablers dug for us. I think we should not just go back to pre-COVID normal. We should take this opportunity to build more caring into the system, more equity, more compassion, waaaaay less racism. Let’s go for Democratic Socialism. I’ll happily pay my share.
I hope you’re doing well. I hope you have something to look forward to each day.