My Second Novel is Finished

Hi everyone,

It took a little longer than I had hoped but here we are on the 10th of January, 2022 and I have completed my second Novel! Totally at 80,746 words, it took me 70 days to complete. Not too bad for having to work full-time and doing writing sprints in my car every morning. It was quite an adventure!

The story went places I never expected and into spaces I’m happy it ventured. Part of the fun of not outlining is seeing where things develop on their own. I started with a main character, and a rough idea on where I wanted to end. The big surprises were just as surprising to me as they happened in real time while writing. Including a certain throwaway character with one line becoming not only a major player in the story but a main character herself. Within three chapters my tiny outline had been derailed, for the better I think.The characters grew on me. They grew with each other. They pulled themselves through the story no matter how rough things got.

My own personal journey with this story was also quite an adventure. It was the first time I’d committed myself to finishing a new novel in over 10 years. I learned a lot while editing my first novel and decided that I was going to try something different with this one. Instead of staying in my comfort zone of a single person, first-person viewpoint, seeing things, learning things along with the main character, I decided to try multi-POV and third-person. I have to say… It was painful. I struggled so much and it shows. I’m going to have a lot of editing to do just to fix how its voice, let alone the developmental and line editing. However, I’m happy I tried something new and made myself get through it. It’s an experience I won’t forget and hopefully some of the things I learned will help me find better ways to write in the future.

That being said, going forward I think I want to go back to my first-person viewpoint for my next novel. Something about living the story through the point of view of the main character feels so much more natural to me. I’m still looking forward to editing my manuscript after letting it rest for a few months. I’m planning on starting work on my next story idea soon while this one rests.  That way when I come back to it several months from now I can read it with fresh eyes and hopefully gain some perspective on its flaws. At least that is my hope for the process. The last time I let a story rest, it was for 11 years. I’m hoping no more than 6 months for this one.

Well, thank you all for reading my rambling once more. I swear I write these things right before bed and end up going on and on about everything. Please do not take these posts as a quality check for my writing! I write them completely spontaneously without checking or editing them.

Also, this song popped up on my random songs playlist while I was finishing up my novel and it is amazing! I already liked Mandy Harvey’s music but somehow never heard this song. It’s beautiful!

I just thought of an idea… Maybe I should do dream posts. Sometimes my best random ideas come from dreams. I usually write them in my notebook right when I wake up if I think it’s something interesting. My latest scribbles say “A multi-level university for wizards with different belief systems working together.” Okay. Rambling done. Goodnight all!