Fourth Draft Complete (now on to other pastimes)

On Tuesday I did what I said I would do. I finished the fourth draft of Vanheim. I'm finding that that is how I'm disciplined. When I tell myself to do something, I do it. I may not be able to keep to a schedule (at least on a regular basis), but when it comes to setting a goal for a day, I'm able to accomplish it usually.

Now my latest story is finished, and I'm still waiting on word for 'Purple Heart', and the check is in the mail for Vanheim to get some pro eyes looking at it. Now what?

Now it's back to one of my secondary projects, a childrens' novel about fairies, that I'm actually quite far along in. Since Tuesday I've been working on a new outline, because to me the story was too boring. The concept wasn't boring. The concept was awesome- it still is. I've had this thing in my head since 2004, and this will be the third outline for it. I destroyed the first outline in one of my fits, along with the sketches and ideas for the characters. When I remade the outline this spring, I had to remember everything, and it's going to be different in some respects. The third outline is packed with action, while still being true to all the events of the second outline. It has to have the action to keep interest. Kids can't handle a ton of explanation at the beginning, and I'm writing this for them, not me. That's the difference between this novel and Vanheim. I started Vanheim on a lark, and this one has so much thought and preparation behind it. The potential is there for this novel to be the most beautiful thing I've written to date.

When I say I'm far along in the novel, I mean I've already written six full chapters, out of twenty (in the early version.) The new outline makes it come out to twenty-two chapters, but most of the chapters only need to be modified slightly to accomodate the newer scenes.

I'm setting a goal of one chapter a day for the brand new chapters I have to write. That should give me a full first draft in about two weeks. Sounds fun. Let's do it!