I had some extra PTO to use before it resets next month, and I decided to use it to recharge and refill my creative well. If you read last week’s post, you’ll know that my summer got a little away from me. By taking a few days off, I was able to really block out time to not only work on my second book, but also take some time to read a couple of fun books. For whatever reason, I find it helpful when I’m creating my own story to spend time in stories and worlds that other people have created.
Last week was more productive than I really expected it to be. I wrote almost 7,000 words in Book 2, which brought my total word count so far to 70,000 (if you couldn’t tell from the title of this post). For reference, my completed first novel (Veritas) sits at around 87,000 words. For this first draft, I am aiming for around 80,000-85,000 words.
But Britnie, didn’t you just say that your completed novel has more words than that?
I did!
The reason I’m shortchanging this first draft of Book 2 a little is because I think the second draft will actually end up a lot closer to 100,000 words. This was a messy draft. Think: a stereotypical teenage boy’s room kind of messy. There are so many places where I didn’t fully describe characters, outfits, scenery, etc; I didn’t block out scenes very well; and I definitely haven’t been paying attention to all that description we talked about last week.
Instead of getting bogged down by external factors (or things that aren’t super important to the plot right now, like what a character is wearing), I allowed myself to just say [insert outfit description here] or [add character action throughout] or [Character Name] and move on with the scene.
Since a big part of this first draft is me telling myself the story and figuring out the majority of the plot, I wanted to leave room within the word count to be able to go back and add those things in, without having to do major cuts later on. I had to do this a little with Veritas (which at one point sat well over 100,000 words and didn’t need to), and I am trying to learn from past mistakes.
All that being said… 70,000 words means that I am really close to the end of the story. If any of you have ideas for ways to celebrate the completion of Book 2’s first draft, please let me know. (Right now I’m thinking I may treat myself to my favorite Mexican restaurant and possibly a special dessert. TBD.)
As I write this post, I’m excited that I will get to share the revision and edits process with you all for Book 2, as well as the publication process for Veritas. Even though each book is in a different phase, it’ll be interesting to see how each develops.
I also seriously need to title Book 2, instead of just referring to it that way (or “Fantasy Pimpernel,” which is how I think about it in my head), but so far, I haven’t been struck with title inspiration for it. Hmm… Maybe I’ll have to do a post on book titles soon.
Britnie Jenkins 