The first draft of Asteroid Made of Dragons is complete.

This is minor news. We should all treat this in a low-key manner.

Okay, maybe I'm a little excited.

But - this is not my first rodeo. This is my THIRD rodeo, if rodeos were books about punching dinosaurs. Finishing the first draft is a very important step, an amazing step that feels like chocolate rockets exploding in my synapses -- BUT it's only the first step. Writing is re-writing as the old mantra goes, and the process of editing is where a draft become a book.  

So! Here's what's next: I have to get the draft ready to submit to the sharp-eyed people at Inkshares and my editor at Girl Friday Production. I want to get that done quickly - the sooner the better, but conservatively it's going to take at least 2-3 weeks. Here's my process for the First Pass Edit, for any of you other writers who wish to judge me cruelly.

1. Print out the draft! I write completely in Google Drive, and all of my re-writing and edits will be inputted there. But there's something very exciting about seeing that big stack of paper for the first time.

2. Find an Ultra Fine Sharpie in a fanciful color. But not red, red is too harsh. Something in a nice blue or green, so the edits seem like whimsical graffiti.

3. Read the draft for the first time. Just a basic read - only correcting glaring grammar goofs. This pass is for story structure, character voice,  tone - just how each scene and chapter lands. I'll make notes as I go for things to fix, add, change, etc.

4. Hate the book / love the book. Kind of a toss-up - generally an even measure of both.

5. Sit in shower and brood. 

6. Input edits from paper copy. This may mean just some minor tweaks or vast alterations. This is also when I start preparing a lot of targeted questions for my editor and beta readers -- I may find things that I HEART or ANTI-HEART, but just want to wait until I've got some other opinions and feedback on before I make the final call.

7. Record the updated draft. Nothing fancy, just me reading it as a quick and dirty MP3.

8. Listen to recording, edit as I listen. I've found this immensely helpful. Nothing makes me really hone in on bad sentence structure or places where the rhythm is off than having to listen to it. I'll also listen to the recording in the car while I'm driving - it helps me catch plot holes and things that don't make sense. Also! It will lead me to new ideas and tangents of thought, always  helpful during the revision process.

9. Repeat Step 5.

10. Submit draft to Inkshares and editor -- and my trusty beta readers. I've been some sort of filthy 'creative' most of my adult life. Writing, acting, shadow-infused Christmas albums, directing, etc. Art does not exist in a vacuum, criticism is essential to a both sharpen and influence the maker's vision. I've made major changes to other books because of beta reader feedback -- and I've also stomped my feet and refused despite all their logic and sensible advice, because I knew that what I saw, what I wrote was important to me. And I never would have known that if it wasn't challenged. Never would have explained it better if someone didn't ask. My beta readers are ice-veined heartbreakers - grammar titans -- crazed chaos-shamans - they punch me in the gut until I make the book better, and I love it. I love knowing that the book can get better and better. This is my first time with a professional editor and I am SALIVATING. 

More updates to come - hopefully more regularly now that I'm not madly trying to finish the draft all the time. I also have lots of news coming on those audiobooks  (some of?) you guys wanted and other details and wool-gathering on what AMOD is and can be and is becoming. I'll also continue to put up sweet pictures of dragons. 

Like this:

AHHHHH!!!!

Today's the day and I've still got chapters to go! EVERYONE remain calm, don't panic - who's panicking? I AM PANICKING. 

In all seriousness - everything is fine. I'm going to finish the first draft this weekend, then spend a couple of weeks doing a 'first pass' edit before I submit to Inkshares and the editing process begins in earnest. Writing is re-writing - the book is going to change and grow in so many ways after I send it over - BUT THAT GOLDEN BAR IN MY GOOGLE CALENDAR IS FREAKING ME OUT.

It's fine. It's fine. Everything's fine. I just worship at the Altar of Deadlines, so I get a little twitchy when I blow my self-imposed ones. I am not one of those writers who 'writes all the time - giggle!' or 'just can't stop writing! - ha ha!' I am a dilettante and lothario, left to my own devices it would just be occasional twitter posts in-between marathon video game sessions on my couch and drunken poetry-brawls with wandering bards. My first two books I lived in constant fear that I would just STOP...and never start again if I missed a deadline.

I'll update you guys again as soon as the draft is done - and FASCINATE you with the process I go through for my first-pass edit.

Here's a quick snippet from the current page of the draft, open now in another tab:

Jonas had just enough time to realize he understood the creature’s words before he saw the rainbow vapor ignite and a torrent of energy come screaming out of the dragon’s jaws. He surged forward, hoping to pull Xenon back from the assault, but Linus and his white sword were already there. The hunter stepped in front of her and the patchwork energies of the dragon’s breath were absorbed into the blank metal.

“Scholar Xenon, fall back.” Linus commanded. “Squire, you guard my back. I didn’t spot a tail on this creature, but it seems agile enough. We will keep its attention firmly fixed on us, understood?”

“Yes!” Jonas stepped into place, keeping one eye on Xenon’s retreat as she hurried back towards the lighted pathway behind them.

The dragon howled with rage -- or was it delight and breathed more of the ramshackle energy upon them. The white sword again devoured it. “The creature is mad. It’s been feeding on the life-force of its brethren for who knows how long. It’s breath is some bizarre mixture of different elemental types.”

“I’m just glad it breathes something the sword eats,” Jonas grunted.

“Yes, well - “ Linus shifted his grip on the white sword. “It appears he has grown bored with that tactic. Here he comes!”

“Does your magic sword happen to kill dragons with a single touch?” the squire spun to cover Linus’ right flank.

“I don’t know. Does yours?” the old man shifted his stance, keeping his elbow high.