Madness First Draft Complete!

Madness First Draft Complete!

Whew, finally done! The First Draft was started on September 1st, 2018 and completed today, February 22nd, 2019 – technically a week early from my goal timeline.

Madness sits at 136,427 words, which is quite a bit longer than Honor.

For comparison:
Honor – First Draft: ~121,000 words
Honor – Published: ~113,000 words

Now it’s time to move to Editing. I’ve got about three rounds of Editing planned, which will take some time:

1. Personal Editing – A lot of writers go back and edit as they write. They’ll write a chapter, then go back and edit it before moving to the next. That works for some, but not for me. I write the entire book without editing anything. Get it all out onto paper first. Then, I go back and start editing. This time, my wife will be offering a simultaneous read through. She’s the best. <3
2. Beta Readers & Feedback – For Honor I went wish a professional editor. These can be great, but definitely skyrocket the publication costs involved. Also, as I’m re-reading through Honor, I’m catching way too many mistakes that I feel should have been caught. I don’t regret hiring the editor, as I learned a lot from the process and they still did a good job catching most of my mistakes. But, for Madness I plan on trying out Beta Readers. This means I’ll be sending a handful of people copies of Madness after my first round of Personal Editing is complete. Then, they’ll provide feedback on the story, plot, and any mistakes they find. Once I have their feedback, I go back and Edit again.
3. Final Review – I’ll be honest, I skipped this step for Honor and it bit me in the ass. I was too eager to get the work that I had slaved over for years out to print and put too much faith in the edits that I didn’t read through it one last time and it hurt the final result – which I’m now going back and correcting for an updated edition to be released. This time, Madness won’t be forced to suffer for my impatience. In this Final Review, I go through with a fine-toothed comb and look for all those sneaky little bastards that slipped through the cracks.

After that, it’s onward to print! My timeline for publishing is a bit wide right now (June – September) for two reasons. First and foremost, I need to be more patient. I made mistakes in Honor‘s release that are directly related to me not taking the added time to be more thorough. I won’t be making those same mistakes this time. Also, one of the benefits to a professional editor is the time saved. Beta Readers offer some good benefits, but one of the downsides is that you’re waiting for numerous people to read your book in their spare time and get you feedback. This can take anywhere from a week to months. There needs to be a cut-off point where I eventually just disregard any feedback I haven’t gotten at that time. Most likely, that cut-off will be around July at the latest. That way I’m certain I won’t miss the September deadline, which is the latest I’d like to release Madness.

If all goes well and smoothly, June is technically possible, but I’m not looking to rush. I’m eager to get Madness out there, as I think it’ll turn out pretty good – hopefully.

Thanks for all of the patience and support, we’re in the home stretch.