I FINISHED THE FIRST DRAFT

It is Friday, May 27th, 9:34 PM EST, and I just finished the first draft of my new book!

This draft came out WAY shorter than I intended, and my goal was already lower than my ideal word count for the final book. However, I am very happy with the book so far and I cannot wait to dive into edits!

As I prepare myself for the daunting task of developmental edits (round one of many), I wanted to talk about my process and what the next few weeks will look like for me.

Personally, I am not a clean drafter. I've found that with every book I write, the first half of the first draft just leaves me with a lot of questions and no idea what direction to take. Then, I chew on some ideas for a few days, and everything becomes perfectly clear. I see the finish line...but it always involves complete and drastic changes from how the novel began. So I end up with the first half of one book idea and the second half of another. This is my process. This is my chaos.

My first round of edits will involve creating one, cohesive book and fixing any inconsistencies in the plot. As you can imagine, there are A LOT of inconsistencies. But that is okay! That's what the draft is for!

I've been keeping a list of everything I already know I need to go back and change in the first half to line up with the events of the second half. After everything is smoothed out in terms of the plot, I'll start the second round of developmental edits. This will include added worldbuilding, more details regarding the magic system, and a little bit of...spice ;).

After that, I have some beta readers lined up to give me feedback for a THIRD round of developmental edits. THEN I'll dive into copyedits and proofreading. I intend to do one more round of betas after that.

And then...querying. Again.

Wish me luck!