While Book 2 (Children of the Volcano) is drafted to the end, there are still plenty of edits, rewriting and smoothing out to do. This phase is what I’m most comfortable doing. It feels so much better from a stress perspective to have everything laid out and tweak what’s there rather than what I’m heading closer to everyday, which is starting the next book in the series.
First drafts are equally as exciting as they are stress filled. Blank pages give me anxiety. When I’m editing/revising, every day is productive. But the drafting process is fickle. I have a goal; a word count I aim to reach each day. Depending on the day, I can hit it in an hour OR take six hair-pulling hours to get there. I can finish the day and hit the goal, yet still feel the day was unsuccessful all due to how I got there. It’s because of that reason I decided to put off officially writing Beyond the Flame until May. My other job is distracting. I don’t have the focus to take on both. When things wind down, I’m going to take April to relax and finish preparations so when the time come to tackle the first pages of Book 3, I’ll be refreshed and ready.
It’s funny to think, to the reader, the story is a quarter of the way done. But in my head and on paper, it’s nearing the end.