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June 2025 in writing
Manuscript progress This month I tried to keep my manuscript read-only to avoid diverging too far from my developmental editor’s draft.
Instead, I’ve been brainstorming future books. I’m surfacing changes to make in book 1 to set up future books, plus it’s fun to think about future storylines. I’m pretty far behind in transcribing these handwritten pages to my wiki, but I’m catching up slowly.
Also, I got beta reader feedback!
May 2025 in writing
Manuscript progress I had named my end-of-April milestone 4.0b1; I needed to do a read-through to catch any issues before completing the fourth draft. I finished that read-through in May, but the changes were extensive: a number of chapter and scene reorders, with a number of major scene rewrites. I retroactively renamed 4.0b1 to 4.0, and labeled my latest changes the fifth draft.
I submitted the fifth draft to my beta reader and developmental editor [!
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 the end of May :)
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.
antarctica
(2)
apple watch
(1)
archer
(5)
beta feedback
(1)
blog
(1)
career change
(2)
computers
(3)
dark garden
(1)
denver
(1)
developmental edit
(2)
editing
(4)
epic fantasy
(1)
falklands
(1)
fifth draft
(1)
first draft
(6)
fourth draft
(3)
hiro
(1)
hugo
(1)
iphone detox
(1)
lazyvim
(1)
linux
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maple
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mercy daae
(1)
nanowrimo
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national geographic
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neovim
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obsidian
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outlining
(21)
photos
(1)
portrait
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raspberrypi
(1)
reading
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rome
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rye
(5)
second draft
(15)
sierra
(1)
site
(1)
south georgia
(2)
tailscale
(2)
third draft
(7)
tmux
(1)
tools
(13)
tracy
(3)
travel
(2)
trevi fountain
(1)
velvet
(1)
whiskey
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wildlife
(1)
word count
(1)
writing
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