Hello again, dreamers.

Three days.  I made it roughly three days before resuming work on The Pioneer.  I just couldn’t help myself.  When I first completed Phase 3, I was more than happy to sit back and loaf.  That lasted…a little under twenty-four hours.  Afterwards, I tried to remind myself I’d earned a chance to rest.  That lasted another day or so.

Now, I’m back at it.  For the moment, I’m focused on a full revision, one I’ve found to be sorely needed.  But already I’m anxious.  I’m itching to get back at it.  I have big ideas for the penultimate phase of The Pioneer, and I can’t wait to put those words to paper.  I have a lot of other things to do this month as well.  That being said, here’s what I’ll be up to this week:

The Pioneer

When writing a novel, I often regard revisions as “light work”.  Indeed, it’s usually as close to a true break as I afford myself.  This time around, however, it’s been a bit tougher, though deeply rewarding.

So far, the two main takeaways from this process have been A) what I have so far is actually a lot better than I remembered, and B) in every regard but the story, this thing is a mess.  I’ve been shocked at the number of odd typos and grammatical errors I’ve found.  Usually I’m far more precise, though I suppose that’s due to my process: I usually revise each chapter the day after writing it, then revise again every five chapters.  The Pioneer has been different: I really want to write this story.  I always want to keep going, to move forward.  To that end, twice now I’ve found myself discarding my process and just writing on, leaving the revision for later.  It’s a good thing I’m doing this now.

Overall, though, I’m very happy with how things have gone.  I’ve made a lot of minor revisions, mostly to make everything more concise and keep character voices consistent, but I like how things progress.  That may change eventually, but for now overall I’m content to leave things largely as they are in terms of progression.

The next big hurdle I’m facing is the revision of Phase 3.  While all of Phase 2 has been at least lightly revised, I wrote all of Phase 3 during the month of November, and much of it has yet to be revised.  Given what I’ve seen so far in Phase 2, I’m dreading Phase 3.  Chances are there will be far more extensive revisions to come.  However, I believe I’m up to the task.  After that, Phase 4 awaits.

While I understand the value of taking a step back from a project, when I have momentum I often find it counterproductive to resist the urge to keep writing.  As such, I’m sure I won’t be able to stave it off for long once I’ve completed this round of revisions.  I will need to do some minor research, but at this point I wouldn’t be overly surprised if I begin Phase 4 by the end of the week.  And I’d be far more surprised if the entire first draft isn’t finished by the end of the year.

Short Fiction

I’d still really like to put in some work on my short fiction pieces this week, especially since this may be the last lull I have before finishing my work-in-progress.  I have several pieces close to complete, and would certainly like to generate a few more.  If nothing else, I’d really like to have one of my pieces polished and ready to post here by the end of the week.  It will, in all likelihood, be my final short fiction piece before the end of the year.

I have a busy, important week ahead of me, dreamers.  Over the course of this month I plan to take a lot of time off work, which means plenty of time to devote to my writing.  The year may be nearly over, but I’m not done yet.  Keep reading, and dare to dream. – MK