No, not like that. I'm talking about dirty drafts and the aftermath.
First off, a dirty draft, if you aren't familiar with the term, is one you write without giving any thought to editing along the way. Just slap those words down and let the missed commas and the poor word choices and the typos lay there. The point is to get the draft out and worry about it later.
Well, that's what I did back in July and August. I wrote a dirty draft... well, filthy really. (Get your mind out of the gutter. It's not that kind of a book.) As I'm going through the book now, making edits notes, I'm discovering how dirty it really is. What a mess.
I mean, it's still a damn good story. It's just all over the place and covered in muck. Like an outdoor wrestling match after a heavy rain. And now I'm left trying to clean up afterwards.
I sat down with my handy-dandy notebook and my red pen, and started making notes. About six pages of those got me to the end of that notebook, so I picked up a new one and kept going. I'm averaging a page - one-side, college rule, single space - of notes for every 2% of the book. Yesterday, I swear I made a page of notes off just two or three paragraphs of manuscript.
Some of the notes are as simple as ">she was in the wau (way", while others reference the time period and the need to make sure what I'm writing fits with the 1950s here in America. I also have a note to go back through the whole damn thing and make sure I don't swear. There's no cursing in the Duke Noble books and I have a potty mouth, so it ain't easy.
I reached 40% yesterday. It's not a fast road but then again, it's covered in crud. Once I get all these notes created, I still have to enter them into the manuscript. Then it's lather, rinse, repeat. I'm not sure when this thing will be ready for even my readers to see. :shrug: It'd be nice to offer to readers in time for Christmas, but I'm not making any promises I can't keep. Hang in there. It'll be done eventually.
Of course, if it turns out that this is actually Book 3, I still have to write Book 2 before this one goes out into the world. Ah, the trials and tribulations of writing a series. Thank goodness I'm indie. I doubt any publisher would tolerate this.
Have a great weekend, folks.
