Now I Know How It Ends

I’m happy to report that the first draft of the next book is done. Huzzah!

Weighing in at 148792 words, it’s my biggest book yet by a long way. I’ve given it the working title of The Phoenix and the Crow.

I’ve often said that the most important function of the first draft is to exist. Until I know how the story ends, I don’t think there’s a lot of point in editing.

And I don’t think that having an outline counts as ‘knowing how it ends’. At least, not for me. My outline tells me in broad terms what’s going to happen, but I usually don’t know exactly how it all ends until I write it.

For me, it’s the same with the characters. I start off with a couple-page character sketch, but they really come to life as I write the first draft. I often veer from the initial sketch as a better idea comes to mind, or as the characters bump into people and events and I get a better idea of who they are.

Now that I know who the characters are, and how the story ends, I’m ready to go back to the beginning and start editing. Character traits that developed during writing can now appear from the beginning. Settings, events, and details can be arranged from Chapter 1 to serve the story and the characters. If I decided halfway through that a character is, for instance, scared of heights, I can make sure that shows up consistently from the first time we meet them. That sort of thing.

So, after a few weeks of letting the draft sit while I do all the adulting that I’ve been ignoring, I’ll be ready to sit down and start the first round of editing. Shouldn’t take more than a few months.