My favorite part of the zero drafting process is when I get to that tipping point where I pass the Swampy Middle, take a left at Albuquerque, and start rolling down the hill towards the End of the Book.
Like many writers, I’m sure, I have an issue with the middle of the book. People have suggested lots of things… skipping around, adding in a substory, but nothing seems to work except powering through it. The middle trudge is when I do 500 word days instead of 5000. Because it takes everything in my brain to power through that damn middle.
Which I suppose is what makes coming out on the other side so sweet. I start that downhill slide with an extra 1000 words for the day. The next, I’m tacking on 2000 words to that draft. And pretty soon, I’m hitting those record 10k days several days in a row.
I’ve probably got about another 15-20k to write on Reapers 3. I’m kind of excited to be done with it. I know there’s a lot of revision to be done, but right now, it feels better than Her Last Kill did, so I’m actually hopeful that the revisions won’t include rewriting the last half of the book like the last one. There’s still a lot of work to do… there’s no denying that. But revisions are easier when you don’t have to change the basic structure of the book’s story.
Just sayin.
[…] if you read the last writing update, I mentioned that I was super close to finishing the zero draft of Reapers 3 and that a surprise […]