THE WEEKLY BREW: Finding the Finish Line

It’s Wednesday and I’m only getting to The Weekly Brew today!

I’ve been sick for over a week, and just when I think I’m getting better, it continues to linger. But, I’ve still been able to get some work done on book revisions. I only have 2 chapters left, and then – the Dreaded Synopsis!

My fellow authors will know why this fills me with such dread. It’s so hard to distill a book down into a page or two (and don’t even get me started on book blurbs!). But then to make those few pages compelling enough to hopefully sell your book to an agent or publisher? It truly is its own art form.

I think getting at least a bare bones draft down will help. And I’m so ready to put this book aside! I mean I love it…don’t get me wrong. But this book has taken me a long time. Longer than I expected.

I think I shared this before, but here’s the timeline of this novel (all are non-consecutive days, since I didn’t work on the book every day):

• Outlining: 1 month (Sep – Oct 2023)
• Zero Draft: 27 days (Nov 2023 – Feb 2024)
• Draft 1: 87 days (Feb 2024 – Dec 2024)
• Revision 1: 3 days (Feb 2025)
• Revision 2: 17 days (Mar – Apr 2025)
• Revision 3: 13 days and counting (April to Sep 2025)

I know it looks a bit wonky. 87 days to draft between Feb. To Dec 2024? From April to July 2024, I only worked on the book 4 days each month. It was right after my Mom passed. I’d open Scrivener, but do nothing more than scroll around before closing it again. I finally got back to it in the fall, and I’ve slowly been pecking away at these revisions between various other projects.

I’m not sure how productive this method is LOL! If I’d focus on one book at a time, I’d have been done a lot quicker, but sometimes our brains disagree. It’s easy to say I know I can write 5k or revise two chapters a day. But that doesn’t mean it always works out that way.

Having said that…I can see the finish line in sight. I love this book, even if it’s a little bittersweet, given the circumstances of writing it. But I can’t wait to be finished so I can send it out into the world and find it a home.