I don’t know how it is for other authors, but I find there comes a time in writing a novel when I feel that the initial uphill phase is done, that I’ve crested the summit and am now writing downhill, so to speak, with the slope helping me.
I think that’s where I am with Book 3 now.
I’m not saying that the words are now pouring out by the thousand – there are still slow days, still times when I need to pause and work a scene through a few times. But, nevertheless, it seems to me that the hard work has been done – the establishing of the characters, the setting up of the plot, the laying-out of crumbs of information that will hopefully lead to a satisfying conclusion.
Once I’m in the downhill phase, it sometimes feels that rather than creating a story out of my head, I’m instead recording events as they happen. Albeit imaginary events! The characters’ trajectory through the story is in place, I understand their personalities well enough to know how they will react… all I need to do is let things unfold!
Which, I suppose, is a roundabout way of saying that I’m about three-quarters of the way through the first draft. Don’t go holding your breath just yet though! There’s still the editing, beta-reading, more editing, waiting for advance reviews…. Come to think of it, my initial estimate of publication this spring is starting to look a tad optimistic!
Mark N Drake 