Rough draft, rougher choices, Spiraling ever in

Credit to @johnnyboylee

I’m both surprised and proud of myself. I’ve finished the main rough draft. My manuscript is making progress; I’ve nailed the basic idea down! My three parts (Cheryl, Marie, and Fiona) are being built, formed from ash and blood and all the other dramatic stuff.

So, what’s next? Is that it? Can I slap it on amazon now?

I wish, but I’d be making a huge mistake, and I think Susan would want to slap me (editorially, of course).

No. Now we strip it down again. Now, I pull back the fluff and skin and the things that are obscuring the message and I rebuild it again. This time I’ll focus on getting those points solidified and iron out both the grammatical formatting and the actual spacing of the work. It’s hard to not get lost, to just run rampant and let the story control me. It’s a nasty temptation, one I’ve talked about on a previous post (I’ll be letting that desire run wild in a different story, one that I can only do once every other focal idea I have is finished; look forward to that in like three decades). Back to the point: the manuscript needs to be refined, adjusted, ironed out. I need this to be as good as my skills and wills will allow; no matter the cost.

As for the rest of this? Let it spiral ever-downward. Let it drown and be consumed in the process. The story must continue, no matter the cost to its characters; and make no mistake, I’m as much of a character in this work as any of the ones I’ve drafted are. I can’t escape my work, and it can’t leave me. I’m too quick to anger, too impatient, too far into the crushing inky darkness of the spiral to know anything else.

That’s it for now! (Hey, P.S., I did another book recommendation on the site too, check it!)