This turned out to be a deceptively productive week. My actual word count ended up at only 3,000 words, but I also found the right arc for the end of the book and outlined two of my three characters arcs. In my process, that’s the sign that my “discovery” phase needs to end and I need to start a thorough, start to finish edit. This always feels a little like starting over, but it’s a huge step forward in the process. I’ve also made some great progress fleshing out Niamsha’s opening and I’m doing a far better job defining Kilasha’s arc. The editing stage is probably going to take another 4-6 months, but by the end of that, I’ll have a draft much closer to publication quality than my first draft.

This is also where I had intended to try my hand at multitasking, where I am working on editing the existing novel while writing new content in other novels. Due to the rocky end of this process, I’m going to get into a steady swing of editing and plan trying to add writing beside the editing in December. Overall, this may result in a delay of my final release dates, but it’s all in the service of better quality, which is far more important to me than the timeline.

Ultimately, I’m considering this progress good, even though the numbers are a lower than I’d like.