Progress: 131,050 words, Thirteen Chapters (Eleven second draft, Two first draft)

This month is Camp NaNoWriMo, and I’m using this event to enforce a deadline of finishing the second draft.

A ‘revision NaNo’ is a little different from a ‘first draft NaNo.’ Where word count is a more obvious and clearly-obtainable goal with a first draft, filling blank pages until you have content to play with, a second draft needs to be measured differently.

I can’t use word count because in one session I may take away as many words as I add, leaving me at zero for the day, appearing as if nothing was done (that’s what I’ll say happened anyway, even if I spent the day watching Youtube videos of a guy turning coins into rings).

For this NaNo I’ve defined what’s left of the book into pages. 39 pages is what I need to get through and, despite revising a chapter I’ve altered several times, I think this is a very feasible target. The changes to the last two chapters are mild and I have notes for what I want to do, so by the end of this month I will be in a good position for beta readers to take over.

Read my post on Beta Reader Best Practices, so you know exactly what my approach is. Up to this point, I have 29 questions, covering Chapters, Postface, Word Usage, World Building, Religion, Flashbacks, Characters, Flow, Genre, and the level of Violence.

I’ve not done this process before, and as far as I know none of my beta readers have either. I don’t want either of us stumbling around in the dark, which is why I think the questionnaire is the smart move for everyone involved.

My beta reader list is compiled from friends and family, but I would like to have a few strangers in there as well. If you enjoy historical fiction and wish to be a beta reader, please contact me.

Back to the novel! Happy writing, everyone!

Thanks for reading. Please Subscribe and follow.