Editing? Again?

Here as I continue my journey of independent authorship of my debut novel, I wanted to take a moment to let people how much work is going into this book.

For example, the book came in originally (after basic edits) at about 60 thousand words. That’s not bad for a romance novel. However, I hated the second half of the book. I didn’t think it was very good, let’s be honest. I spent weeks trying to wrangle it into some sense of cohesion and order. Sure, I used a beat sheet, I knew what was going to happen at the end. But it was the second half of the second act that was really getting me. The worst has not happened yet, but things keep going wrong for the characters.

The months have dragged on. The editing stalled to the point where I decided to stop working on it until I had a professional editor (or two) to look over it for me. However, taking a month off of editing was the smartest thing I did yet. While I played video games, wrote on other stories, and felt immensely guilty for the self-care, my brain was percolating on how best to evolve the story. Even in my sleep, I dreamed of Ancient Sands. This ended up being a good thing.

I have since sat down and written almost eight thousand more words since then. And I’m not done.

You wonderful people out there, you writers and readers and monster enthusiasts: thank you. For the inspiration. For the stubbornness to keep writing in spite of feelings of failure and distress. If it weren’t for you and your support, you folks who have put your time and effort into spreading the word, we wouldn’t be anywhere near where we are. Thank you.

On another note: Anubis coins. Get one.

I’ll be adding the kickstarter to the site so its easier to find!