As part of my desire to get back up to speed, I’m
So here’s this
Last week was an interesting one for me as I was able to actually sit down most evenings and add some words to my existing WIPs. It feels like I haven’t been able to do that for so long, you wouldn’t believe.
I’m not sure when the Arrowverse returns to my screen to mess with this good practice, but I do know the final series of Game of Thrones is just around the corner. Eeek!
The Truths We Live is now over 72,000 words, having broken the 70,000-word mark on Thursday evening, which is excellent news. Each
My other main focus, the now officially titled (for now) The Big R-oooh!-d Trip thanks to a poll on my Facebook page, has broken through 10,000 words too—again, a psychologically important mark.
So, I’m pretty pleased with that
If I’m being optimistic, I think I’m in the closing stretch of the first draft of The Truths We Live, although I say that accepting that I’m also certainly going to have to write a third book in the series to finish it off. The only question I’ve yet to answer is do I leave this book with a cliff-hanger teaser of an ending.
I’m minded not to, but I can certainly see the benefits of doing so.
Talking of a third book in the series… I think it’s going to be called The Facts We Face, which leaves me with an interesting conundrum.
- Book one was called The Lies We Lead, which abbreviates to TLWL.
- Book two has been called The Truths We Live from its inception, which abbreviates to TTWL.
- And it looks like Book three will be The Facts We Face, which abbreviated to TFWF.
Do you see where I’m going with this?
Shouldn’t the final word of the title of book two start with a ‘T’? But what word could I use? Trust? Does that work? The Truths We Trust? How about ‘Thrive’? The Truths We Thrive? That’s not as good, is it?
Not that it matters really. It would just satisfy my sense of good order for the books to be TLWL, TTWT & TFWF.
I probably won’t change it to be honest, but you never know.
If my optimism is justified and I am indeed in the home straight of a first draft, that also means I’m nearing the point when I need some beta-readers—people who will read through the first draft, can look past any silly spelling or grammar issues and just give me their impressions of the characters and the plot.
I like to do this because it’s an insight into what someone might think about the finished product. I guess it’s like a test screening in Hollywood. If the test audience reacts well, then all’s good. If it reacts badly, then there’s some major reworking to be done.
I’m not there yet, I don’t think. But I’m close.
If I’m being wildly optimistic again, I’d love to get a couple of actual British Adult actresses (or actors, actually) to give it a read and let me know what they think. Ella Hughes, say. Or Georgie Lyall. Or Danny D.
But that won’t happen.
Anyway, I’m just happy to be making some progress. It feels good.
