Progress Report April ’18
Four months into 2018, and I suppose I can just about spare a few moments from playing God of War (which is magnificent) to tell you lot where I’ve got to. With my book, that is. Not God of War.
You can get more details of my current project in earlier progress reports, if you are among the pitiful damned who do not hang upon my every post. Essentially I’m writing a new trilogy in the First Law world, but writing it all in one go before I revise and refine each book for publication. Each one of these three books is in three parts, and I am currently writing the NINTH AND FINAL PART. Indeed I’m about 20,000 words into it, so some 40,000 words to go until a super-rough draft of the entire thing is FINISHED and I can begin the lengthy process of taking stock of where the whole thing is and polishing this unwieldy mass into a diamond.
Getting towards the end of such a massive project is a lovely feeling, I must say. I mean, there’s a huge amount of work in the editing and revision, but a lot less than the drafting, and generally I find that the fun part. Probably the work is getting sloppier and sloppier but the whole point is just to bosh it all down as quickly and roughly as possible so I can take stock of the shape, see what I need to change and refine, and begin to make it lovely (or as lovely as I can). I’ve always felt this approach would prove worthwhile for a hefty series, but writing the final chapters I feel it’s really starting to pay off. Being sure of how things end for a character really helps to crystallise what their story is about, and therefore where they need to start and what they need to be, the nature of their relationships with the secondary characters, their thoughts, feelings, concerns.
So it goes pretty well, in short, in spite of various real life distractions (not to mention God of War). I very much hope that by early June I will be tapping out the final words and starting to take stock of the almighty task of revision and alteration. Though I’ll probably need to do a reread of all the other First Law books first, just to make sure there are no opportunities missed or history I’ve forgotten or messed up on. Publication of Book 1, A Little Hatred, still looks good for late summer ’19. But I, of course, make no promises…
