Hi everyone! Welcome back to the blog! This post is all about my plans for the next two months and how I am paving a path for my writing projects!
If you have followed along with me for a while, you would know that 2021 NaNoWriMo was successful for me... I completed a 74k first draft of a Young Adult fantasy/romance novel with magical realism and vampires! This NaNoWriMo I plan to dive into its' developmental edits.
I am currently drafting a first draft of a different novel that is also Young Adult fantasy with magical realism and teleportation! That draft is at about 71k words and I anticipate to finish it within he next two weeks with an additional 10k words at least.
In the midst of that, for Preptober I will be laying out a new scene chart for my vampire project. I have a printed copy of the first draft so I am skimming through it and dividing it by scenes rather than chapters.
I am also doing three read throughs as passage reads. These three reads will target different things each time and I am color coding along the way.
Structure and world building
Characters and relationships
Sensory detail, show v. tell
Diving these read throughs up will help me identify holes and where I need to add or take out information.
I have already started this process and as a first timer of developmental edits, it is definitely overwhelming! But taking this large step back from the story has my mind filled with fresh ideas and motivated to tackle it and make the story all around better!
I am thankful for the fast drafting experience though, because this second project I am currently first drafting has a lot less holes and gaps along the way. I created a scene layout and it made the process so fluid. So that's why I am taking Preptober to create this layout for my vampire project based on the first draft I have! It will be a complete rewrite (of course with many elements from the first draft) but I am so excited!
NaNoWriMo will feel like a fever dream to tackle this same story again and I cannot believe it has already been a year since this story was born!
I plan to print out the current story I'm drafting once finished hopefully in the next two weeks and will definitely tackle it again in less than a year... lol.
I hope everyone is having productive and disciplined writing progress being made! Writing is such an honor and privilege and to be a writer is to be a gate keeper of worlds! The power a writer holds in the palm of their hand is astronomical, never give up on that story!
I'll be back soon with more random updates about me, my reading, and my writing! But for now check out my Twitter and Instagram @ livi2chronicles ! Happy almost October! My favorite season is underway!
See ya!
Olivia Brooks