third draft thoughts

A third of the way through draft three is feeling pretty surreal. Sometimes, I read something and I'm like, "Go me! I totally tied that major plot point in." And, other times, I read something and I'm like, "WHAT was I thinking here." It's been a wild learning experience, and I think this is my favorite draft so far.

Now that I'm a third of the way through, I thought I'd share what's worked for me because I definitely veered off the path of what I thought would work.

1. For drafts one and two, I set smaller page counts to get through each day. There was so much more writing involved, that 2-3 was all I felt like I could manage. But, for draft three, I'm aiming for 20 a day which actually works because the edits and changes are much quicker to implement now that I mostly know where everything is going. Also, AT LAST, I'm so close to the end and I wanna sprint there (metaphorically, because no thank you to running).

2. I thought I'd be all cool, non-linear editing this draft, and that didn't work as planned. So, for now, back to linear with a few WILD out of order additions. Perhaps for draft four, I can bounce around to my heart's content, but, for now, Luna requires more meticulous beginning to end attention.

3. Mostly, the major changes and additions have been planned since draft two. BUT, I've had a few smaller moments whilst toiling away about intriguing changes to make. Staying open to new possibilities and not being 10000% tied to an earlier vision is still helpful at this stage.

Hoping all this leads to a July finished manuscript that I'm happy enough with (can you ever feel like a story is complete) to start getting feedback on. THEN, on to planning for publishing routes, and a multitude of blog posts figuring out those options.