Magus’ Gambit has been pushed back to December – don’t ask. I sent in the pre-edits on Book 3, I am hoping to start a new project for Champagne after I finish the duology I am working on. On the current project, my aunt is the only one who has given me feedback and Ron is behind in his stuff, I can go ahead with some of the editing but Ron is usually good for telling me when my pacing sucks. I had it in my brain I could have the first book ready to go to an editor before the end of a year, but as of right now that’s not going to happen. I have to finish book 2 and I could edit Chimera for Champagne tomorrow, but I have enough of book 2 written for the Puppet Masters that I can go back and make changes to book 1 and it’ll be smooth and feel like they were written with both in mind. Technically sitting around 75k, I have to go and delete a bunch of scenes as I changed some things around and there’s a massive part of the story I haven’t touched yet but, book 1 wasn’t a short novel, book 2 probably won’t be as long but more challenging on my part.
Short of it, is that most editors aren’t willing to take a client tomorrow and, even if they are they want a word count. It’s going to take me one Hard Pass (that is, going over the printed out version, making massive changes and at least 3 passes of the manuscript after that. I’ll have a better idea of a word count then, so that way I’m not promising say, a 120k novel when it’s been chopped down to 90k or whatever. There’s no point giving the manuscript to an editor until I get it as good as I can (some people do this with betas – I say depends on your level, and Ron if there’s a massive issue call me out in the planning phase). So assuming my niece and Ron give me feedback for the end of the month, I could probably get it to the phase of needing an editor come January. What’s weird is I technically finished the first draft last January (it wasn’t good, but I tweaked it for a few months) and I have to go back and add on to a few scenes, but I might be able to get all of book 2 written this year (rough draft anyway). Life’s been kind of stupid for the past two months so I’m getting back into the swing of things; I thought I’d be starting a new project for NANOWRIMO, but short of it is I’d rather push to get this second book roughed, then start fresh for 2024. Not counting all the things that need revision; I could probably not write a single new word for a year and focus on revising old projects and come across as incredibly productive.
I came up with the title A Ballad of Wood and String a while ago and was unaware that a Hunger Games movie “A Ballad of Snakes and Songbirds” was being made into a movie coming out this year; I read the trilogy but honestly I think the author wrote herself into a corner but that’s a topic for another day. I was joking that A Blank of Blank and Blank was a little too popular, but after chatting with my sister, I’m changing book one’s title to A Fable of Wood and String. I had other contenders, like Songs Foxes Sing, but my niece really wants to evoke the marionettes.
I’m a little annoyed I need to make changes because music plays such a big part of the story. I was also really worried about proper use of the word Fable – now, the common understanding of what a Fable is is that it’s a short morality tale – often including talking animals – but I looked up the meaning and, etymologically speaking it works if we go to secondary and root language meanings; words do change over time but I don’t like to invoke an incorrect meaning. I have no idea if this is going to be the actual title or I move it to the series for the duology, but for now, it’s no longer Ballad, but Fable.
So yeah – haven’t done everything I wanted to and this year doesn’t seem like I got much done but I’m keeping on with the keeping on. I revisited a few other smaller children’s books I wrote, and both need minor attention and I can send them off into the world of slushpiles. Maybe I’ll even get some art in, who knows? I took out a ton of graphic novels from the library with the intent to ink them for October/Inktober, that ain’t happening.
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