It is finished… again!

I’ve finished the second draft of Novel #3!

What does this mean? I have a novel that I could start submitting to publishers (though I am *not* going to start submitting it just yet… more on that, below.)

This revision has taken longer than I expected partly because I expended more energy on completing and promoting the Lazy Designer game design book than I had expected.

Plus I did more revision work than I had intended.

What have I Learned?
My first drafts need to improve. I am still spending too much time on the revisions. This revision was finished quicker than the last; I hope for the next novel my process improves even more.

What is Novel #3 About?
Aliens and robots.

What is Next?
I won’t send this novel out until I complete another editing pass on it. This will go faster than the revisions and will involve mostly tweaking sentences, grammar and fixing spelling mistakes. The novel should be ready by the end of October.

But I still won’t send it out just then. In November I’m going to write a good portion of Novel #4 as part of National Novel Writing Month. So I’ll be focused on that. In December I’ll take another look at Novel #3 and then start submitting it.

What is Novel #4 about?
My fourth novel will bridge the gap between the events of my short stories “The Prophet” and “The End of the Road” (originally published in Not One of Us). I’m going to really dive into the character of the Wanderer. There will also be aliens and all kinds of mayhem.