Update on Eris
Wow. It was Nov 2007 when I last posted about not reaching my NaNoWriMo goal for Eris. Here it is May 2009 and I finally finished.
That’s right. FINISHED!
After having to scrap pretty much all I wrote during NaNoWriMo 2007, re-work the plot to include two heroes instead of one, AND deal with a hero that wouldn’t cooperate so he blocked me until I did what he wanted, I am finished.
Eris is the introductory book of the Plain Sight Universe (called such because all the preternaturals hide in plain sight but no one notices them–it’s a giant urban fantasy universe :P) and is the first book in the Eternal Truths series. It weighs in at 151,500 words, which I know is long but there really is no way to cut that down unless I sacrifice some of the relationship development… which is pretty much the entire plot. 😀
When I did the self-edit, I was hoping to cut 30k words but I was only able to cut 4k. There are two chapters that I’m sure an editor would say are superfluous but they are needed to connect this book to two others in the Multiverse collection (beyond the books of the Eternal Truths series) and even if cut would only constitute like 5k words.
I’ve sent Eris off to my beta readers, who are long-suffering and have been waiting (and bugging me about it) forever. Once I hear back from them and do the tweaks they suggest, then it’s off to the agents.
So what’s next?
Today, I am vegging. I’m going to eat my subs and watch TV. After I act like a bump-on-a-log for a day or two, I’m diving back into it. Next on the agenda is probably Yolette, my dragon story (love love love), which is the introduction to the Abaranne Universe.
It’s already got 62k words written and my goal is to get it to 80k or higher (but below 100k). I just have to update it to my current writing-style (I’ve definitely changed since I first worked on this book waaaaaay back in 2003/4), add in a few more scenes, connect the whole thing into a coherent and cohesive whole, and then write the synopsis.
I say probably because it’s a toss up between that or finishing another Zenobia Renquist installment. I have a Zen-Ren book called Pet’s Pleasure that is a stand-alone sci-fi romance and currently clocks in at 69k. (Told you, I’ve been writing just not finishing.) Like Yolette, I want to get it over 80k (pretty much all my novel-length books will be over 80k, if I can manage it). And that’s not even a hard goal to reach considering I have several scenes outlined within the manuscript (where I got the word count) that need fleshing out, so hitting 80k is nothing but writing it.
Ultimately it depends on which book is talking to me the loudest when I sit down and start typing. 😀 I admit, without shame, that my characters rule me. When they start talking, I write so they leave me alone.
But for now, they are letting me take a break. So time to veg.