Writing Update: Draft 4 is Finished!
What happened?
I finished Draft 4!
I’m so proud to have finished this 2-year endeavor. When I began Draft 4 (D4), I had no idea it would be a complete rewrite. But looking back, the difference between D3 and D4 is stark. Both the story and my writing skills have vastly improved, making the investment in time and effort very much worth it.
That said, D4 is not actually ready for consumption. There are too many major items to address before it can be released to early readers. For those of you still interested - hang in there!
What’s next?
The usual advice when you finish a draft is to set it aside—the longer, the better. This creates distance from your work, and that distance helps you see things with a bit more clarity and objectivity.
I moved to Spain right after completing D4. That move has already forced a month-long break, and I simply cannot wait any longer. Thus, I hereby declare the break over.
Draft 5 has begin!
And I have a plan:
Read Echoes from start to finish
I cannot overstate how excited I am for this…
I am allowing myself to take notes in a separate document, but I must not edit. I want to get a good feel for pacing, consistency, flow, etc. Editing would make that very difficult.
Organize the feedback
Each chapter has dozens of comments from critique partners. Their feedback ranges from line-level (e.g., typos, word choice, sentence structure) to story-level (e.g., plot, character arcs, theme).
I will prioritize all feedback items from most to least important/impactful, then organize them further into editing passes. For each pass, I will tackle a specific set of items; that way, I am not thinking about everything that needs to change at once. I expect D5 will have a handful of these passes.
Revise, revise, revise
Editing is my favorite part of the writing process. I cannot wait to get started.