I did it!
I finished writing my second book!
Coming in at 85,162 words, the first draft of my fantasy novel is complete! Although I use “complete” very loosely, because if you’ve been following along, you know that there is actually quite a bit of work that needs to happen.
But the point was to get the barest bones written down on paper, and then I could go back and revise. (And you know, name all the minor characters, add in description, figure out what characters look like/are wearing, etc.) However, in order to do that, I needed to know where the plot was going, which required having a full draft.
As much as I want to immediately dive back into revising, there are a couple of books about writing that I want to read before I revise. (Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott and The Anatomy of Story by John Truby) Plus, I’ve heard a lot of writing advice that says once you finish your first draft, you need to not touch it for a few weeks. Then your brain will be able to better see the things that need fixing.
In fact, I believe it was Stephen King who said that you need to lock it in a drawer for at least six weeks before you look at it again.
I don’t remember if I told you much about this project, but I actually came up with the idea for it during my senior year of college. I was in my senior seminar class for my Writing & Editing major, and need an idea for a creative story for my final project. Actually, technically I’ve used both of my novels for senior seminar projects. I used a partial draft of Veritas for my English major project.
Ah, the life of an overachiever who double majored.
At one point during the final weeks of the semester, I unintentionally granted our class an extension on our papers because my professor didn’t like where I ended it. I believe his exact words were, “You can’t do this!” To be fair, the main character’s life was in peril, and with that ending, the villain may have just won and the fates of both her and her love interest were ambiguous. In an effort to save their lives and defeat the villain, he gave us a few more days before we had to turn it in.
I have been wanting to finish this fantasy novel for quite some time, but since I’d really been mostly working on Veritas, I let this one sit in a dusty corner of my computer. In 2020, I thought that maybe I could use the time I wasn’t working to write, but weirdly, going through a global pandemic, losing your job, and trying to find another isn’t really conducive to pursuing creative passions. Who would have thought?
About this time a year ago, I really felt like 2024 was My Year. There were several writing conferences I wanted to attend, and I really wanted to start pursuing publication for Veritas more voraciously than I had in the past. Hence why this blog was formed. But while I was doing all of that, I also wanted to finish drafting my fantasy novel–or at least get a really rough first draft finished.
Ta da!
Britnie Jenkins 