what next + some themes from draft one

so I wrote a book, now what?

What Next?

Well, I finished the first draft of a novel. That’s an achievement in a decade in the making. I started working on Halcyon six years ago and I tried to write other books before and after. I kept thinking it was the book idea that was the problem but turns out learning to write a novel is just hard. But finally, finally, I have a manuscript I could hand someone and they might complain about plot holes or underdeveloped characters, but there’s a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end for them to read.

So what comes next?

First - enjoying the rest of June. Soaking in the summer. Just working on whatever I want to work on, whatever strikes my fancy on a given day. Messing around with new short story ideas, working on old ones, reading a lot, maybe looking for a home for a finished short story or two. No pressure or deadlines.

The point of this is to give myself a break after pushing pretty hard to finish the first draft of Halcyon but also to let the story rest. It’s like throwing a clean tea towel over a bowl of bread dough and setting it on the kitchen counter to prove after adding the yeast and kneading. I’ve written enough short stories to know this step is crucial. I’ve never written a story that didn’t need a month or so to linger in the back of my mind between drafts. I’ll be off enjoying my summer while my subconscious works out problems that I didn’t even realize were problems.

Also this break between drafts will let me see errors more clearly, like coming back to that email you wrote yesterday but didn’t send because you want to double check it for typos in the morning. In this case, I’ll be looking for “typos” in the over-all story; characters with no development, glaring plot holes, unsatisfactory storylines.

Next month, I’ll start planning for draft two and begin developmental edits. Developmental edits just meaning the focus is on editing the story, not specific scenes or individual lines. This is about big picture stuff. I’ll re-outline draft one, re-reading the whole thing, and try to evaluate what’s working, what’s not.

Themes in Draft One

I’ve mentioned before I was surprised by some of the themes that seemed to be coming out in draft one. Some were total surprises, others more a sharpening of things I was already thinking about.