AUGUST 2020 – From finishing the first-draft of the new book last month to now kicking off a third round of editing. Completed a cover to cover read through and formatting of the book as my second draft. Turning it from a series of completed chapters to a formatted, cohesive piece. Leaving it in a position where you could fully read the story and grasp all of the pieces clearly, with the third draft being for polishing up the prose and style of the writing. Crafting the word choice and sentence pacing. I still need to get it in the hands of a proper editor to take it to that next level of professionalism and get a second set of eyes on it.
Still debating if I should have some mystery readers go through it, as I’ve been listening to podcasts with main stream authors, and that seems to be a universal practice. As it is true that I am very close to the material and interact with it differently than someone else coming at the material fresh would. Have also read articles about being careful of said practices and edits that can change the meaning and tenor of your book, so there is that too, haha. First step though, getting it to a level of quality that I am happy with. And then I can switch my focus to the illustrations and cover art.
What did I read this month? Drifted my selection to something from the works of Ian Flemming, most known for the James Bond series. Have read several of his books in the past and I had heard that the book ‘Moonraker’ was in particular, very different from the film adaptation, so I was curious to see how different. Turns out, almost completely different, haha. Won’t spoil any elements of the story, but let’s just say for those of you that have seen the film, you will recognize a few of the character names, but that is largely where the similarities end. Reading about rockets seemed quite fitting with all of the awesome work SpaceX has been doing for humanity, of which I have also continued to follow closely this month.
Outside of that, I’ve been taking nearly daily bike rides, getting out on the water, whether paddle boarding or kayaking, and while I haven’t hiked to the top of any mountains, that is certainly on my radar for the Fall. Will keep you all up to date with the writing process, don’t have an approximate release date for the book, as we are likely still somewhere between 3 and 6 months out. And that is coming from an optimist, so take it with a grain of salt, haha.
Stay awesome everyone, thanks for stopping by!
~ CS
