Editing

So where are we now? What's next?

Archer of the Lake's draft is finished.  I never 'officially' shared that here, but approximately ten minutes after one in the afternoon on June the 11th, I officially completed writing my first book. That was a rather large milestone for me.  I'm still in shock.

So then I asked for people to edit, all the while spending time since then sluggishly reading through the manuscript to make my own cursory edits.  Mostly typos and basic syntax.  Yesterday I finished doing that, and last night I sent the manuscript to several peers--fifteen exactly--for them to read.  They will be looking for typos, syntax, and content. I will, hopefully if everyone participates, have the opinion of fifteen people on my book. Nerve racking. I was rather paranoid before hitting "send" when Boyfriend and Best Friend insisted I should not trust everyone I've sent it to.  They think someone will have the propensity to steal my work, so I took extra measures in case someone decides to maliciously do this. I don't think anyone will.  I hope not at least.

So now, I'm stuck in a rather odd situation.  At the moment, there's nothing for me to do with Archer.  There's no writing to be done, currently, or editing on my behalf.  There's just waiting, and that's strange because I feel as though I should be doing something.

When I do begin getting the feedback of my editors, I'll start making my gruesome edits.  And I'm hoping I won't have to dismember my baby TOO much.

Then at work I had this frightening realization. That people were actually reading my book. MY book. People are going to be reading my book and they may hate it or they may like.  They will have an opinion of it and they will know the characters I've spent the last year and a half creating.  And that's scary.  It makes me feel so exposed.

But there are plenty of other things I can busy myself with.  I've just begun drafting Runewell, and I have to say I'm relieved that Myria is turning out to be a different person than Caelfel.  (Main character in Runewell and Archer, respectively).  This is a fear I've always had.  That I would get accused of the "Mary-Sue", lookalike characters.  But I believe there's quite a bit of distinction.  So far.  I've not yet reached my first 1k word mark yet.  But it's outlined.

Then I had a dream, three days after completing Archer, and it inspired me to write another book.  I won't say much, because I don't want to promise something I won't deliver.  But this prospective story is currently titled Mute and it has a post-apocalyptic, almost steampunk setting for the scenario.  I will share a Facebook status I composed the morning after said dream:

I had a dream last night and it inspired me to write a story involving a philosophical and applicable comparison between Christianity and eastern schools of thinking.

I've made a rather basic outline for this one too, already have the names of the three most important characters down.  I feel that this will probably be the most meaningful of all my projects.  It'll be dark, rife with physical abuse and depression.  But it's important.  I really want to write it.  I don't suspect (or at least hope) that Runewell will take long.  And then there's a project after Mute, but I won't say much on that.

And now.  While there's nothing to do and I wait for Boyfriend to get home, I've suddenly found myself approaching another Phantom of the Opera kick.  The last time this happened, I watched my copy of the movie four times a week for at least eight months.  Seriously.

SOMEONE BRING ME PHANTOM.