Hello again, dreamers.

It’s been a long, grueling, incredible month, but as of last night, my NaNoWriMo experience has ended.  And with it, Phase 3 of The Pioneer is complete.  Writing the climactic chapter was, I must say, a surprisingly emotional experience.  From the earliest stirrings of this story, the events of the climax had always been there.  It was where I knew things were heading, and I knew how things would play out.  Actually putting those words to paper was a singular experience.  I’d thought nothing could top the sensation of writing the third and fourth chapters of Wide Horizon.  Now, I must say I was wrong.

Of course, this is far from over.  I still have another phase to write, still have to draw all of these events to a suitable conclusion.  That said, here’s what’s to come for my treasured work-in-progress:

The Pioneer

I haven’t written today.  Not a word, save this post.  I may write later, I may not, but either way I feel the need to rest.  After the past month, I am exhausted, both physically and creatively.  It was a rewarding experience, but I’ll admit part of me is relieved to know it’s over.

As I normally do, I plan to take some time away from The Pioneer now that Phase 3 is complete.  At the very least, I’ll likely give myself until Sunday.  I may do some reading and light revision, but I’d also like to put in some time on various outstanding projects.  I may even take a crack at one or two of my other novel ideas.  We shall see.

When work resumes next week, however, it will begin with a lot of editing.  Over the course of the past month, I fell behind in my revisions, and as such I have a great deal of material that’s been lightly revised, if at all.  I know there will be a lot of changes, and above all I’m sure many things will be removed.  Over the course of the month, I found that many chapters tended to get off to a plodding start; I knew where I was going, but wasn’t quite sure how to ease my way from one piece of action to the next.  Much of the early paragraphs of the last five or so chapters will need to be condensed, and most likely a great deal of material will be excised.

On the bright side, however, I’m feeling less self-conscious about the word count.  As of the end of Phase 3, it stands just north of 112,000 words.  On the lengthy side, to be sure, but not overly long for science fiction.  My feeling is that Phase 4 will be significantly shorter and faster-paced than the previous two phases, perhaps no more than four or five chapters.  If that holds, it means at my current rate of about 4000 words per chapter on average, already The Pioneer will be significantly shorter than Wide Horizon, and I’m happy about that.

The big question, ultimately, will be what stays and what goes.  I’ve begun to wonder recently if my world-building gets a bit too technical at times (already I’m planning to pare down or remove a passage describing the process of laser-inertial fusion).  That concern has led me to fear that I may have gone too far in describing technology while neglecting other, more vital forms of world-building.  I may end up approaching one or two of my beta readers (or perhaps enlisting some of my Twitter CPs) to look over the story so far, and offer their input.  It may be that I’m too close to this story to make objective judgments in this area.

In any event, once the revisions are complete, the research phase will begin.  As I’ve said, I expect the research phase for this phase of the novel to be much shorter.  However, I still have work to do.  Most of my research will likely be focused on the design and mission of an ESA survey craft, the ERV Endurance.  Currently, my notes have the Endurance conducting a survey of the star system surrounding Merak, when they receive a message from Samarkand.  As they will have to rescue the survivors of the Susan Constant‘s crew, however, the time it will take for them to get there is a concern.  I’ll have to run a few numbers to be certain the journey would take less than a year (ideally no more than six months).  If that’s unworkable given the 12.75 c relative velocity of their ACD, I may need to select another star system.  If worst comes to worst, I may even need to move the Samarkand colony to a different system within the Ursa Major Moving Group.

I have plenty of reading, revising, and research ahead, but I feel up to the task.  It’s still hard to believe how far this story has come in so short a time.  I can’t wait to see where it will take me next. -MK