April 2025 in writing
Fourth Draft progress I finished the fourth draft’s initial manuscript pass, where I updated the scenes with my notes and rewrites from my third draft read…I think having a hard deadline made me way more productive than anything else. I don’t yet consider the fourth draft finished, but I’ll finish by May 26 :) Developmental Edit I made a serious push to find a developmental editor in April, especially since they tend to be booked out a number of months.
March 2025 in writing
Fourth Draft progress I’m over the worst of my jet lag from my trip to Japan. I still woke up at 2am this morning, but I’ve been up and productive, so I’ll take it. I’ve finished reading the book. And I started the fourth draft. I’m going to try to finish this draft pass by the end of April, though that may be optimistic. More details below. Reading my book I focused too much on line- and paragraph-level issues, editing as I go, when all of the advice said to read the book at a high level.
February 2025 in writing
Third Draft and Beyond It was a good February. I finished my initial 3rd draft manuscript edit pass on the 23rd, likely the first time I completed a milestone before my soft deadline. I had thought the 3rd Point of View would take the longest, because I had massively altered its outline and arc, but it turns out I had already addressed most of those changes in draft 2.5.
January 2025 in writing
Third Draft The 2nd POV continues. At the beginning of the month, I was going slowly; I had hit the section of Act Two that I had heavily refactored, so I was largely writing scenes from scratch. I finally caught up to the parts that had largely stayed the same, and I sped up significantly. And then, as of the past week or so, I’ve slowed back down: I’m hitting Act 3 and the climactic scenes, which always slow me down.
December 2024 in writing
Third Draft Progress is slow but consistent. The holidays provided this month’s distraction. Our local dog park is temporary closed, so we now drive to a larger but further park, which eats up a large chunk of daylight, but most of the time seeing Rye that happy is the highlight of my day. And we’re getting ready for a very exciting January distraction :) Finishing the First POV The climactic scenes took a lot longer, as usual.