Because I’ve had so many hiccups along the way over the past few months, I’ve had to postpone my latest book, Shadows of Atlantic City. Well, recently, I decided to stick with a deadline and am working diligently to hit my writing goals for each day.
Sometimes this means putting a blog post on the back burner, or even postponing a video on YouTube. When you’re as busy as I am with so much chaos surrounding you, it all comes down to prioritizing the time. And right now, this next book is number one on my list. Well, outside of helping my freelancing clients, anyway.
When is the Deadline?
I’ve set the deadline for Shadows on March 22nd. That will give me plenty of time to work on the book, especially when I have off days that tend to throw everything out of whack. I won’t be overly pushed for incredible numbers and should be able to keep on track should someone need me to drive across Colorado again.
This gives me just under six weeks. Is that enough time to finish writing the first draft? Absolutely. For instance, I cranked out more than 1700 yesterday in a 90-minute window. In reality, I can write an incredible amount of content as long as I can sit at my desk for longer than five minutes before someone needs something from me.
That’s the price of being in high demand. Of course, that demand is mostly coming from kids and clients. It’s a balancing act, and sometimes it shifts a bit more to one side. But at least most of my “downtime” is the result of a good cause. It’s not like I’m wasting my day watching YouTube or binge-watching something on Hulu.
At any rate, I only need to write 1,161 words per day. And given how fast I write, I am relatively confident that I’ll be done with the book before March 22nd. The last time I went all-in on my book, I finished writing the first draft of Kingmaker nearly three weeks early.
On the other hand, Shadows has taken a lot of time in terms of research. Instead of a fantasy world that I am making up, it’s based in Atlantic City in 1874. I want to be as authentic as possible, and the research itself has been fun and interesting. But it is time-consuming, nonetheless.
Beta Reading from BMC
Once the first draft of Shadows of Atlantic City is done, the monthly members of Buy Me a Coffee get the first crack at beta reading. They helped me shape Kingmaker into a much better book overall, and I’m looking forward to seeing some feedback on this new one. It’s the first “Western” novel I’ve ever written. Technically, I guess it would be a “dark” Western, as most of everything I write centers around the paranormal, gothic horror, and morbid twists.
I’m sure I’ll have to make a few changes here and there. After all, it’s a first draft. But I am hoping I am closer to a solid story than I was with Kingmaker. In that instance, I rewrote an entire character because almost everyone unanimously didn’t like how he was structured. By the end, I wound up writing an extra 12,000 words.
It was a pain, but the book came out WAY better than the original first draft. So, I suppose I’ll have to see what everyone thinks of Shadows. It’s quite exciting, actually. I love getting feedback.
What Comes After Shadows?
Once I’m done writing the first draft of Shadows, I’m going to let it cool for about four weeks or so. For one thing, I learned from Tom Bromley in the Masterclass that it’s a good idea to give a book four to six weeks before you start editing. And I tend to agree. In fact, I often go back over blog posts several weeks later just to catch errors and such.
Giving yourself time away from anything you write helps you approach it with a clear set of eyes. When the book is no longer fresh in your mind, it’s so much easier to catch a myriad of things that don’t make sense, redundancies, or even problems in the dialogue.
Anyway, as Shadows sits and the beta readers are reading, I’ll start working on finishing Fury, the sequel to Kingmaker. I’m already almost halfway through the book so that one shouldn’t take long to finish either.
Then, depending on how Shadows performs, I’ll debate on making it a series. There’s a lot that can be done with the characters and such that are in that book.
Here’s to Success!
So, any takers on whether I can hit March 22nd for the first draft of Shadows? If it were a bet in Las Vegas, I’d put money down that it’ll be done beforehand. That’s because I am quite motivated to make it happen this time around.
It would be nice to have this one on the bookshelf before my birthday in July. But I suppose that depends on just how much of it needs to be fixed. However, I do intend on paying someone to create the cover this time around. It took way too long to get the cover together for Kingmaker last year, which is why it was published in November instead of June.
In any case, here’s to publishing a couple more books this year! Let’s hope people enjoy reading them. Anyone can whip out a book in three months, but will it be a good book is another question altogether.