Hello, dreamers. It’s officially June. I’d hoped to have principal writing on the final draft of The Ursa Frontier completed by now. But as I always say, the best-laid plans of mice and men…often involve cheese. At any rate, I still managed to get a ton of writing done, and the end is finally in sight.

Now, of course, the trick is getting there. So with that in mind, here’s what I’ll be working on this week:

The Ursa Frontier

While I did not, in fact, complete the final draft last week, I got a lot of writing done. In the end, the delay came from deciding I would, in fact, need to add two additional chapters to wrap things up properly. I completed the first of those, and am now well on my way to finishing the second.

Honestly, part of the slowdown was due to not having a clear picture of what the penultimate chapter would entail. But over the last few days of the week, things evolved organically, and cleared up. I now have a clear direction for the final chapter, and a good idea of what needs to be done with the final chapter to draw everything to a satisfying close.

As of this writing, I’m about halfway through the penultimate chapter. The final chapter itself will require only modest modification to accommodate all the prior changes. I could easily knock this out tonight.

Once that’s done, I’ll be spending at least a day (possibly two) on what I’ve been thinking of as “window dressing”. In preparation for this, over the past week I’ve amassed a large file of notes on potential final tweaks and changes. Most will involve only minimal actual writing (everything could only amount to, at most, half a chapter’s worth of new text). There are several key areas I’m looking at:

-Chapter Lengths

First and foremost, I’ve been taking a closer look at my chapters. I’ve come to realize some of them are a lot longer than I’d like them to be. I always tell other writers that a chapter, like a story, should be as long or short as it needs to be. Over the years, I’ve read many books that run the table with regards to chapter length. Some are clearly regimented regarding chapter size, while others play fast-and-loose. Frank Herbert was notorious for odd chapter lengths, with chapters of the Dune novels ranging in length from ten pages to five paragraphs.

For better or worse, my push for more interiority has caused some chapters to balloon rapidly. Typically, around 3,500 words is my sweet spot. So last night, I actually went through and measured the word count of every chapter in The Ursa Frontier. Some of the longer ones aren’t overly long: around 4k is probably fine. Some are particularly vital chapters, so they’re probably fine. Others, however, desperately need to be either pared down or broken up.

By embracing this novel’s identity as a multi-POV story, I’ve inadvertently given myself some help in this department. There are at least a few chapters that could easily be split up based on where POV shifts. In any event, I’ll probably need to write some new text after splitting some of these chapters.

-Problem Passages

Despite months of work, there are still around half a dozen passages that still don’t feel as good as they should be. Most are critical pieces of dialogue. Lately, I’ve had more success than I’ve had before in simply scrapping passages and starting over. That may be due simply to my new writing style; it’s easier to try a passage again without feeling like I’m just reinventing the wheel.

-POV Clarity

I’ve once again found myself in need of a POV sweep. Ironically, this will probably focus on the new passages and chapters (new chapters in particular). It makes sense: when I write, I tend to immerse myself in the scene. I’m still learning to embrace the new style, and sometimes find myself narrating the scene rather than letting the characters tell the story.

Once all of that is done, I’ll be stepping away from the story for a few days before my final editing pass. My goal is to begin editing this weekend. During my past several rounds of edits, I was able to focus my attention on new passages of text. But after the sheer amount of changes I’ve made this time around, I’ll need to go line-by-line, making sure everything flows properly. That means the process could take several days.

Querying The Ursa Frontier

On the bright side, taking a few days away from The Ursa Frontier will give me time to work on my query materials.

It goes without saying that, given how much this novel has changed, both my query letter and synopsis will need to be completely rewritten. After all, the idea of chopping the novel in half began when I realized how hard it was to cram all the major plot points into a query letter of less than 500 words. In the past, I’ve been reluctant to work on query materials until I was completely finished with the manuscript, edits and all. But looking back, I realize that was partly because, frankly, the idea of a query letter scared me to death.

I’m better now. I did this before, and I dare say I did a great job considering the amount of plot I was trying to shoehorn into it. Having the plot less compressed will allow me to dig deeper into things, which can only improve my query letter. As I’m unlikely to make any substantive changes during editing, I don’t see why I shouldn’t start working on the query letter and synopsis before editing begins.

My Next Project

Over the past week I’ve still enjoyed working on The Ursa Frontier, but I’m pretty sure that’s simply because I’m actually writing completely new material, rather than cutting and pasting. I’ve no doubt that, once the final draft is complete, I’ll be eager to start working on something else.

I’m now pretty much certain that my next novel project will, in fact, be a fresh start on Aquarius 1. It’ll be a chance to remain within my fictional Dotiverse while still working on something new and different. Once work on The Ursa Frontier is complete, I may attempt a few test writings. But obviously my summer will be devoted primarily to notes and research.

So, as far as actual writing goes, I plan to return to short fiction for a while. And that will offer the opportunity to work on something completely different.

New Content

Over the past several weeks, The Ursa Frontier has consumed my writing efforts. And, as tends to be the case, my weekly posts have lapsed. But fear not, loyal readers; new content is coming.

In my next “Pioneers Sessions” post on Wednesday, I’ll be discussing how my recent work on The Ursa Frontier has allowed me to plug plot holes I hadn’t noticed. And starting this week, my weekly features will become “Friday Features”, which will be published at 11:30 AM every Friday. This week I’ll be reviewing All Systems Red by Martha Wells: book one of the Murderbot Diaries, which has now been adapted into an original series on Apple TV+. And I’ll be resuming my “Dear Sir or Madam” posts starting this Sunday.

Also, this Friday I’ll be making a special announcement. Until then, dare to dream. – MK