Trezka: Third Draft Complete

So, just as the title suggests, Trezka’s third draft is complete. I’ve made my notes, my edits, my additions, and now I’m sitting here in the aftermath to give you an update and tell you how I feel.

I feel… I feel… macaroni pictures.

No, really, I feel like going right back through the book. Though I made huge strides with this last pass, I’m still not certain it’s packing the emotional heat I’d like it to. It’s like the story I want is bubbling through a crackling lava chute and I’ve just pinched the surface enough to see its glow.

That’s not what I’m going to do, though. At least right now. This lava’s going to get a chance to cool a bit, and maybe head into an entirely different direction.

Because now that this version is complete, my goal is to get the book as far out of my mind as possible and concentrate on the follow-up. Only when the Fourth Book’s first draft is complete will I return.

Why? Well. I need to be able to look at Trezka with fresh eyes. I’ve been too long absorbed with its mysteries and characters to notice their writer-provoked flaws and inconsistencies—and I don’t want there to be any when I pass this along to the next set of eyes.

Will there be? Sure. But not major ones. Not game changers. This is the most ambitious tale I’ve yet told, and it needs to be told right. Especially as it’s the end of all that’s built toward this point. Of particular concern is the very beginning, and if that’s not truly nailed, none of the rest will even matter.

I think it will be good. It might even be great. But I’ve yet to convince myself it’s there already.

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