Book Two: A Clip Show

One of the fun things about having this blog is that I get to go back and read prior entries about how Book Two is coming along. And by "fun" I mean "holy cow that is just so sad I have to laugh."

Let's take a little journey through time, shall we?

Thursday, August 23, 2012
"The Writing Process"
The earliest documented evidence that I was actually working on Book Two (and I quote: "I'm working on the second one in the series now. Really. I am. Seriously.") In this post, I note that Book One actually took about two-and-a-half years to create from inception to final draft, and then I say the following words: "I'm sure that Book Two won't take that long. I'm sure! I will keep telling myself that!" Ooookay Brian, whatever you say...

Friday, September 7, 2012
"Book Two Status Update"
Wow, this was almost exactly a year ago! Back then I said "Book Two isn't anywhere close to being done yet. Rest assured, I am hard at work on it. Really, I am." Just the fact that I had "Book Two" and "done" in the same sentence at that time makes me snicker. I also said this: "the details of about five chapters are pretty much solid." Almost all of those details no longer exist.

Monday, October 22, 2012
"Monday Awesomeness Alert and Book Two Status Update"
If you read this post you will see that the Awesomeness Alert had nothing to do with Book Two's progress, which was summed up thusly: "I've drafted about 4000 words so far, some of which will get cut, re-written, or otherwised sliced up and used as digital confetti (totally environmentally friendly, I promise)." Ah, how prophetic.

Monday, January 28, 2013
"The Writing Process and Book Two Update"
The first installment of my "Talkin' to Felicity" series, in which I confess to her that 17,000 words are basically destined for the recycle bin.

Thursday, April 4, 2013
"Talkin' to Felicity"
The second (and probably last) installment of this series, in which I tell her that I have 17,000 new words that I like a lot better. Five months later, only about 8,000 of those words still remain.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013
"Rolling The Book Two Boulder"
The money quote in this post is "But now I think I'm finally on the right track - cross your fingers - so hopefully we'll have a completed first draft sometime before the end of the year." I need to learn to stop saying things like that.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013
"Book Two Update: Remember, It's Just The First Draft"
This post makes me laugh the most, mainly because of this quote: "So at the risk of jinxing myself, I can say that I now feel like I'm finally back on the right track. Yes, I realize I've said that before, but this time I mean it." Hahahaha

Thursday, August 8, 2013
"Greetings From Spectraland: Day Four"
This was when I cleared my schedule and did nothing but write. I got the word count over 26,000, took a little break, and then submitted it to my editor (me) for review. He said "nope, still not working, try again." Tough SOB, that guy.

And that brings us to today. I have a new storyline and about 11,000 words. Since both the outline and winging-it methods haven't panned out so far, I'm trying something new: a hybrid technique where I wing it for a while, see where that takes me, then outline the next two or three chapters and go from there.

I'm not going to offer any predictions of a completion date or say something like "this time I think I've got it!" It's going to take however long it's going to take. And really, I'm not even halfway into Book One's 2.5-year timeframe yet, so I don't feel that bad. It's all part of the process of writing the best book I possibly can.

And all kidding aside, it really has been fun. In fact, I would say that it's been even more fun than the Book One journey because, this time, I have all of you folks along for the ride. Mahalo for hanging in there, reading my little status updates and waiting patiently for a book that will come out sometime within the next year or so, possibly in the fall of 2014 one day.