Hey Nykkita,
About three months ago, you joined the Digital Novelist Newsletter. Right around that time, I crossed an incredible milestone that was five months in the making:
I completed the first draft of my upcoming military sci-fi novel Cereus & Limnic: Escape From Okinawa - Type B.
Through an annoying butt injury that made it difficult to sit, and lengthy trips on trains, planes, and buses in South America, I wrote daily to reach the goal.
It wasn't simple.
The task of transforming the narrative from a mostly sterile AI-assisted draft to a much more personal allegory in half a year's time was a feat I was enormously proud of.
But the pride didn't last.
I stepped away from the project for almost a month before I got into editing, and initial progress was tortoise-slow.
The weird reality of editing a 219,000-word manuscript is that you don't get to see your own brilliance for a very long time.
Right now, I am about 23,000 words into the editing phase.
Progress is unglamorously paced, but it's happening.
Because I reset and started the editing process from page one, I haven't seen the end of this book (which is hauntingly captivating) in months.
It be like that though.
When you write a long draft, the back half is usually where the story really matures and the writing finally starts to flow. But I don't get to look at that part right now. Instead, I'm back at the beginning, wading through the foundation of the fiction before the momentum truly kicked in.
Since I finished that draft in February, my craft and process have evolved. So has the story. Those changes have arrived through moments of tumult and uncertainty around my business and life in general.
Furthermore, like with every project life has actively tried to get in the way. Many shiny new ideas, work and family commitments have blown me off course several times.
But we're still going. Goal is to have it done by the end of the year.
If you're curious about how this massive edit is actually unfolding, I keep everything updated over on the novel's main page. You can check out the latest progress and see how it's taking shape right here:
See novel progress
Hope you're having a great Thursday.
-Keith
P.S. Are you working on any long term projects?
What is/are they and how's it going?
Let me know in a reply.
