Update Link: Watch Me Burn – Part 31

Happy Monday! Hope everyone had a great weekend.  Time for our usual Monday roundup! Check under the Read More tag for more notes.

Fool Me Twice – Beta Draft

I spent all of last week putting together my notes for the second draft of Book 2, and then from Friday – Sunday, I took the notes and created the structure for the second draft. I knew that I was planning to add a lot of material, but I didn’t really think about how much space that material would need until I completed the shell structure. The original first draft had 60 chapters —  this second draft is projected to have 92 chapters. Now, for the most part, the chapter length is projected to be around 3k-5k words, which is about half of the chapter length in Book 1. That’s for storyline purposes and for readability.

For a lot of reasons, it actually feels like this second draft is a complete rewrite. I struggled with Book 2 for two years before I was able to write anything, and even as I wrote Book 2, there were characters and stories I never felt like I had a handle on until I got to the second half of the book. But now I feel like I know what I need to do, and I have a firmer grasp on the character and relationship dynamics, so I’m really excited to dig into it.

That being said, I’m probably going to be shifting my release dates a bit and reworking a posting schedule. I wanted to set a conservative editing pace so that I’m not falling behind. I’m planning to edit/write two chapters a day between today (July 24) and September 14, which excludes Sundays.  Right now, I’m scheduled to complete Acts 1 & 2 before I go back to work with the students in early September, which is 72 of the 92 planned chapters. I might move faster than that pace, I might move slower.

There’s a chance that, because I am adding so much material, I may need two more rounds of edits before I’m satisfied. I really won’t know that until mid-September when I do another read through.  Either way, I’m not going to be ready in mid-October. I don’t want to rush it and end up with a Book 1 edit where I’m actually still not super happy with the finish product, but I think it’s good enough.

Anyway — that’s the deal for that.

Posting Schedule Update

With Fool Me Twice being moved to probably more like mid-November, I’m going to adjust Signs of Life so that I’m not taking too much time off between projects. Plus, I’m going back to work a bit sooner than I thought (two days of orientation on August 22/23, then four days of development starting Aug 28, then full-time Sep 5.

• Watch Me Burn: Summer schedule (M/W/F) continues until August 18. Week of August 22, it’s W/F, then Aug 28, it’ll be just Friday. Starting in September, it moves to Saturday mornings, once a week for the foreseeable future.
• Signs of Life: Chapters 1-8 will be reposted the week of Aug 28. In September & October, new chapters will be posted Tues/Thurs. In November, chapters will be posted M/W/F until completion.
• Fool Me Twice, Book 2: Aiming for Thanksgiving release, so beginning Wed, Nov 22 and posting M/W/F until June.