The Road to Book Two--Part 1

I've gotten a number of questions, especially in the past week, about the release date for The Heartfriends Book Two, so I'm starting a multi-part blog series to talk about updates! This will be semi-regular and discuss how close to finishing a draft I am, what goes into finishing drafts, and my writing process in general.

A sneak peek
at Aurelia's POV

Let's start with something I'm excited for: Book Two will be split into three points of view! This is obviously a change from Book One, in which I stuck closely to Aurelia's POV. It's been fun diving into the other two characters' heads, but it's also been a challenge because I know Aurelia so well. In order to figure out the POV characters' arcs and get deeper into their perspectives, I've tried two different methods--micro-plotting and writing by hand.

This is two chapters
of micro-plotting

Micro-plotting is pretty much what it sounds like--plotting at a micro level. I broke down each POV into ten chapters and each chapter into fifteen pages, and then I wrote down what happens on every single page. I don't write this outline with the goal of everything staying the same when I actually write it, and it's my experience that the content changes more often than it doesn't, but it's been a great way to break chapters up into scenes, be more deliberate about the story pacing, and see where holes in plot could be. It won't prevent those holes entirely, but it does help.

Harder on my hand,
easier on my brain

Most of the time, I write in Word. I'm a quick typer, and I like being able to rewrite on the fly. I really like seeing my word count go up and knowing I'm making progress. However, because I'm diving into new characters' perspectives, introducing even more characters, broadening the world, and exploring the mythology more, I've taken to writing this current POV in a notebook instead. It keeps the dreaded cursor from taunting me, prevents me from wasting time on the internet, and helps me focus on what I'm actually putting on the page.

So, the most relevant update right now: the first draft of two points of view are entirely written, and they come out to about 65,000 words. That number always tends to get larger in the next draft. I'm working on the third POV right now. Currently, it's at 9500, and I'm aiming for approximately 30,000. Once that's done, I'll have a few short miscellaneous chapters to write (approximately 5000 words), and then I'll be able to combine all the sections into the proper order and start the revision process.

I've also been drafting the front cover, and the tentative title is The Shadow of the Endless Night.

Stay tuned for more updates!