With each of my books, I think somewhere around the halfway mark, I find myself reading through miscellaneous scenes that I've drafted out. Legitimately might have fully written chunks but I'm not at the point yet where I can put those scenes into the manuscript. And I'll read through them or through outlines of battle chapters ('cause they're time consuming and confusing to figure out), and I'll almost wail at my computer screen, "I just want it to be done."
Like, can't it just magically appear as a completed draft that I can just read? That's all I want. I just want all of the books and histories and side stories to POOF into my hands so I can curl up and read them. I don't wanna have to write them. It takes so much time and energy and concentration and there's just never enough hours in a day to accomplish it all.
That being said, I'm about halfway through book 5's rewrite. And I'm edging closer and closer to several massive reveals that I'm stupid excited about, but dang keeping track of it all is enough to make my head spin.
This is a really great thing, that I'm chugging along with book 5, and I'm genuinely enjoying getting the canon story down onto paper. I'm a month behind my goal, but given holidays I'm honestly not shocked that I wasn't able to wrap book 5 in December. The first nine days of January have been very productive, and if it's possible, I'm plugging along with the hope that I can complete book 5 before the end of next week.
Because if I can get that all done by the middle of the month, that means my goals for book 1 can align well with the unfolding timeline.
Now, don't get me wrong friends; book 1 being published (FINALLY), is worth celebrating and I will definitely toast to myself when we get to that point. But, just because book 5 might be completed and the main series initial drafts are done doesn't mean that I'm done writing. As a few of my close friends are aware, there looms in the distance many, many more books that I'd like to see written so that I can finally enjoy reading them.
Lord willing, announcements will be made within the next two months of what lies ahead, and what my goals are. I hope my 0.1% readership shows up to help.
Goodness I need to get better at growing a fanbase.