The Ooning – rewrite draft finished

I finished the second draft of the Ooning today. It came in at nearly 53,000 words. While the length is too short (it’s roughly equatable to the previous draft), the structure’s complete. Slotting in more chapters should be simple as it’s been rewritten in a modular style. The focus of this stage was to block the book’s elements to a near-final point, and I’m confident I’ve achieved that.

Reaching a milestone like this is double-edged. I’m relieved it’s here, but I’m tired of the project and keen to end it, a wearying feeling when there’s still such a long way to go. But positivity is important with large pieces, and this is a final point of two complete drafts and the culmination of a lot of work. It’s a good place.

I’m aiming to get the manuscript ready for beta readers before the end of May. I’m going to leave it alone for four weeks, then do two or three complete edits before external reading and whatever changes result from that. Around twenty percent of the first draft was repurposed for this version just to get the form straightened out, and I want to rewrite the old parts. The extra sections will need to total at least another 10,000 words, so there’s still 20,000 words of writing to complete, and almost certainly more. I want it finished before autumn. Then I’ll start looking for an agent.

My writing time over the next month will be spent on the next book. The preliminary work’s well underway and I need to start shading in colour. There’s theme and plot and over 6,000 words of sketches. What I have so far is structurally fluid and far more relevant to my current personal position. It’s exciting. Being at the baby stage with a book again is right for now.

But today belongs to the Ooning. Happy birthday, flower. Hopefully it’s your last.