February Update

Before jumping ahead, let’s take a look back at the month that has passed.  January, and winter in general, have always been a time when I like to get things in order.  It seems natural, the end of one year and the beginning of another – a mental marker for the procession of time.  Makes sense.  This year I have e-publishing in mind, and January marked a decisive step towards that goal, with this being the first full month of the rewrite of my three-part novel, Monarch.  I find rewriting to be an explorative and transformational process, filled with varying amounts of angst and ecstasy. 

I’ve heard told on more than one occasion, and I tend to agree, that a rewrite takes twice as long to complete as the initial writing.  There are extremes to both sides, sure, but I am willing to say this is probably a good average.

So in judging the time it will, roughly, take me to complete the entire rewrite process for Monarch – with polish, proofing and all else that it will entail – I also need recall how long it took to write the first draft.  Let’s see...  

I began writing on July first.  I spent a day or two at the onset, before I really got into typing, just running it all out in my head; a coalescing moment where I allowed the story and the characters to begin to play, like a movie between my ears.  I am an outliner.  Some prefer to go in blind; I do not.  I like to have lampposts, keeps me on track.  Play between the lampposts, but keep moving forward, always moving forward. 

It took from July first through November second to write the three-part first draft.  (125 days x 2 = 250 days)  Now if we we're to believe in the law of averages, then it would be safe to assume that it would take two hundred fifty days, from the day I began on the rewrite in December, marking somewhere around September as the supposed end of the rewrite process.  But I have no intention of releasing the three parts at once.  No. 

Part one required a month and a half to write.  It was by far the most difficult of the three to get onto paper, and will likely take the longest to rewrite.  Three months – a solid three months, at the very least.  Once I have the first part available, parts two and three will then be released in subsequent months. 

So, with that in mind, let’s put January behind and move on to February.  A month that, although I can’t say what will happen with absolute certainty, will bring me twenty eight days closer to e-publishing. 

Until next week, I’ll leave you with a question that I need to answer before the end of the month:  Should Monarch be the first thing I try and e-publish?  I have a short story that might be better suited to hit the marketplace first.  Until then, thanks for reading. 

-aap