Writing Update: In Which Katie Takes a Victory Lap

Why, you ask? I’m happy to tell you.

Draft 3 of Echoes of the Tides is DONE. COMPLETE. FINISHED.

And the best part? I love it.

Re-reading the story in its entirety, from start to finish, was a rollercoaster of emotion, and I enjoyed every moment.

Does that mean my work on the manuscript is done? No, definitely not. I see many hours of editing in my future.

The good news is that I love editing. I can get entirely lost in restructuring scenes, moving sentences around, and finding the perfect turn of phrase. I get so lost that I don’t even notice it’s time for lunch (which is quite rare for me). So while there is still a lot of work to be done, I am cautiously optimistic that I will (for the most part) enjoy that work.

What’s next?

I’ve compiled/formatted all the scenes from my writing software into an actual manuscript. (Turns out, I also loved this part.) That manuscript has been sent off to a handful of early readers. In addition to general thoughts/opinions, I’ve asked them to provide high-level feedback about the story structure because it’s…quite long.

Long enough to potentially split the existing story into two separate books. A duology, if you will.

(For context, Draft 2 was 85k words. Draft 3 is sitting at 178k…)

Once I gather some input from these early readers, I will have a decision to make: keep Echoes as one book and edit it (way) down, or re-work it into two books.

Whichever path I take, I aim to create the best possible story I can. To remain faithful to my vision.

That vision has gotten me this far. Best not abandon it now.