This summer has been full of first drafts. First, Amanda and I tackled the ALL OF US VILLAINS sequel, a process that included an excel outline that continually needed to be revised and many, many phone calls. Co-writing is a completely different task from drafting solo, and one of the best parts is having a person to talk through plot problems and character beats who understands the book just as well as you do. If people are interested in hearing more about what it’s like to co-write, let me know—I’d love to go more in depth in a future newsletter. But for now, I’m just excited to say that our first draft is with our amazing editor. And I can already tell that this book’s going to be something really special.
The second project I’m working on is an adult fantasy novel. This idea has been cooking in my brain since last October, so when my schedule finally allowed me to get started on a draft, I was beyond ready to dive in. I’m on track to finish the first draft around the end of this month, which is really exciting. I’m a pretty experimental drafter, which is a nicer way of saying that I make rough outlines for my books and then completely ignore them in favor of following whatever plot and character beats feel right in the moment. Because of this, I consider my first drafts truly rough. I revise them before I let anybody read them, critique partners and agents included. I used to be a lot harder on myself for struggling to get a story right the first time around, but I’ve grown more and more comfortable with the realization that I need to give myself full creative freedom before I figure out which puzzle pieces are worth keeping, and which ones need to be tossed out.
All this to say…it’s going to be a while before this book is ready for any kind of feedback. And I’m okay with that.
