Progress! Yes! It’s exhilirating to say that.
Both chapters 1 and 2 of book 2 are done. (Seeing that little progress tracker on the home page go into double digits felt great.) In total, I’m sitting at just over 9,300 words so far, meaning I wrote just shy of 6,000 words this month. Now, that wasn’t quite the 10,000 words I mentioned as my goal in last month’s post, but it’s almost double what I wrote in September. I’m feeling really good about it. I’ll still likely need to pick up the pace if I want to reasonably get the first draft done before the end of next year (assuming it sits at around 90,000 – 100,000 words like I’m planning on), but I’m just happy to see it already shaping into what I pictured when coming up with the chapter outline.
Ok, now some more meaty updates. Like I said, I finished chapters 1 and 2 which, in my original outline, were going to be a single chapter. I’m glad I split them up, seeing as chapter 1 ended up at over 4,000 words and chapter 2 ended up at just over 5,000 words. It makes me wonder if I’ll need to split further chapters as well, which is something I did in the first book. We’ll just have to see.
As a small FYI (and maybe a quick reminder for the one or two or you who have been reading since very early on), my writing process is mostly outline-based, but with some discovery writing as I go. I typically try to stick to my chapter outlines, but I also tend to deviate a little as my writing flow dictates. It happened a bit in chapter 2, and I really like what came out on the other end. It beefed up my outline (hence the 5,000 words), and I think these first two chapters are a great opening act for this new story. I hesitate giving any specific details, especially considering this is a sequel that starts hours after the first book ends, and that book should (hopefully) be officially releasing by the end of the year.
Speaking of Enceladus, I’ve got an exciting update for you! My awesome sister-in-law, Talia, sent me three different draft pencil sketches of possible covers. It was really hard to choose one (all three were so cool in different ways), but I finally landed on this one:
It’s so cool, am I right?? Seeing the actual art is a little surreal, to be honest. It makes it feel like it’s actually a book. Crazy.
Oh, and here’s another fun update. As I was writing book 2, I realized that there were certain things I wanted to make sure worked well with the end of the trilogy to make sure the books all felt connected with a satisfying ending. Well, for that to happen, I need an ending, right?
I ended up spending about an hour and a half, maybe two hours, writing up the basic outline for book 3. I have a plot structure, and I have an ending. If I can make it work the way I’m hoping and manage to pull it off, it’s going to be awesome. I still need to do a lot of research, and there will be kinks that need to be worked out in my more detailed chapter outline, but I have an ultimate goal to work toward as I write book 2 and, much MUCH further down the line, book 3.
Finally, I wanted to say thank you to my wife’s book club who volunteered to read the most recent, nearly publish-ready draft of the book for their October meeting. It was so nice they were willing to read and discuss it, and I got some good feedback. It, again, makes me feel like this is an actual book which is a dream come true. Look for your names in the final acknowledgments!
Welp, that’s it for this month’s update. There’s quite a bit to chew on up there. Hope you enjoyed it!
Until next time!