i finished my second draft
plus: pursuing short stories, summertime updates, and a dinosaur :)
hi everyone!
i hope you’re all enjoying summertime and staying cool! we’ve been having heatwave after heatwave here, but in between, when things cool down to a more reasonable eighty degrees or so, i’ve been able to get out and do some fun stuff. besides that, i’ve mostly been working at my summer job and preparing for grad school. i move in at the end of august and i’m getting more and more excited every time i think about it!
i also turned 24 a few days ago and celebrated by going into the city for the day! i went to the museum of natural history with my sister and my friend for the first time since i was a little kid. it was great—especially the dinosaurs, because who doesn’t like to see dinosaurs! we also went to a nearby bookstore and walked through central park. it was a near-perfect day, aside from the heatwaves, and the subsequent train delays caused by the heatwaves.
so my second draft is now complete! i’ve been chipping away at this draft since january, and am very relieved that it’s completed. it is 121,429 words, which is about five thousand words less than the first draft (that’s a good thing). most of the major changes i made were to the beginning of the story—altering when the story picked up for the two leads, which events kicked off the main plot, etc. i also worked on a few sideplots, took out some unnecessary scenes, added a few new ones, and fiddled with some character motivations. i changed the progression of the main romance a lot, moving some events up to create a little more drama and tension, and adding entirely new things to flesh it out a little.
for the next draft, i want to focus a lot on my characters, and why they do what they do. there’s one side character in particular i want to work a lot on—why they agree with certain things, why they disagree with other things, and if those line up or if i should rethink their reactions to certain events. i’d also like to continue fleshing out the main romance as much as possible—i think there’s a lot of room for it to grow, and that it could use a little more work in the middle so the characters don’t jump from strangers to lovers. finally, from a more technical perspective, there are a few areas of writing i’d like to spend time practicing, such as sailing and battles (two rather major things when it comes to pirates).
now that i’ve finished my second draft, i’m hoping to take a small break from it and practice writing short stories. first, because i’ve been staring at this draft and constantly thinking about it for months, and i need a break, just like i did when i finished my first draft. but also because as i’ve poked around into the world of publishing, started following authors and editors and publishers, i’ve learned a lot about the world of literary magazines and getting short stories published (and occasionally even getting paid for those short stories!). it seems like a good idea to start having things i can add to my resume as an author, especially if i decide to pursue traditional publishing with my book. it’s one of the reasons i’ve also decided to share a few short stories on here, as well, though primarily older ones, as any newer ones i write i will likely be saving in hopes of getting them published elsewhere first.
that said, it’s also fun to play around with shorter-form fiction like this. when i was younger, i used to write short stories all the time—for example, in 7th grade, i went through a phase of constantly writing sci-fi flash fiction. i can’t say that any of those stories were particularly good, but i do remember how fun it was to try to create a full story with so few words. it’s also interesting to see how fleshed-out your character can become with those same constraints. i’ve got a few ideas i’m playing with now, and i’m excited to see what i can make of them.
some songs i’ve been listening to:
unsweetened lemonade - amélie farren
i'm sitting in the bathroom,
i'm crying citrus tears
everything i used to love decayed over the years
the girl, so confusing with lorde - charli xcx & lorde
and it's just self-defense
until you're building a weapon
she believed my projection
and now i totally get it
little fortune - katie lynn sharbaugh
we’re taking samples from lemonade stands
we find the fastest route to the lakе
aren’t the peoplе here happily unaware of the scenes they create?
books i’ve read:
first, i read a power unbound, the final book in freya marske’s the last binding trilogy. i’ve been reading this trilogy since april, and have honestly really enjoyed it! as i’ve probably said before, the characters are engaging, the magic system is unique, and the romance is always fun. i will say that the final book was probably my least favorite of the three, as i just preferred the main couples of the first two books, but i still really enjoyed reading it, and will definitely revisit this series in the future!
next, i finished queen of the damned by anne rice as i continue to spend a significant amount of time every day thinking about amc’s interview with the vampire. i thought this book was really fun—my favorite parts were the beginning, when all the characters were being introduced and had individualized chapters, and the end, once all the characters came together for the big finale. the middle dragged a bit for me, and some parts were a little uncomfortably outdated. anyway, i’m now on book 4, tale of the body thief, which i am also enjoying a lot. love to see these vampires in situations!
finally, i read the emperor and the endless palace, a recently published book about past lives & reincarnations that was marketed as fantasy/romance. i was initially very excited for this book, but found it never quite reached my expectations. i’m not the biggest fan of first-person pov, but am always trying to expand outside of my comfort zone, so did my best to not let that sway my opinion. however, three different perspectives all from first-person is a little confusing, and i struggled initially to keep them straight. about halfway through the book, i became unsure if i was even supposed to be rooting for the main romance, as it had not yet been particularly romantic in any of its three iterations. the current-day pov also had some slightly heavy-handed and awkward dialogue when it came to queer culture and modern-day slang. additionally, there were some instances of poorly handled scenes, mainly concerning consent. however, some of the prose was rather beautiful, and i found it easy to read, often not wanting to put it down, as the chapters were fast-paced and almost always ended on cliffhangers. i also found the two historical povs interesting, as they are not settings i’m super familiar with, and enjoyed exploring those time periods and learning a little more. by the end of the book, however, i was left disappointed and confused by the unresolved ending, and found that it mainly suffered from being marketed as a romance when it was really more of a cautionary tale about an extremely toxic love triangle that got reincarnated again and again.
all that being said, i think there is a lot to learn from books i didn’t enjoy, especially poorly marketed books. if this is an industry i’m trying to enter, i should learn as much as i can—including engaging with the genre i’m writing in, even if some of the books end up not being quite to my taste.
once again, i hope you’re all having a wonderful summer. i’m headed down the shore soon, and am hoping to spend most of my time there reading by the water. i’m also going to start submitting short stories to literary journals/anthologies soon, so stay tuned for any updates on that! i also have a few older short stories that i may post on here as well. and, of course, i will be starting grad school in just over a month!
see you soon!
becca 🦕
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