Rough Draft Complete!

Hello reader(s). I’m happy to announce that yesterday evening I completed the rough draft for my latest story, The Machine. The entire thing is now written from beginning to end. All the problems have been answered and all the story promises I made have been fulfilled in satisfying ways.

In other words, it’s now passable enough to hand over to an editor. Unfortunately, the editor happens to also be me… so my work is far from over.

It took me way too long to complete this story. I officially announced I would start working on it June 18th, 2021. It was supposed to be a short story that I’d complete fairly quickly (using the momentum I’d gained from finishing my first novella).

But a lot happened between now and then, including moving to a new home (which is likely to happen again soon), a video game addiction (or two), and a huge project involving the creation and development of a trading card game (that I can’t wait to show you). Still, I think I could’ve completed this story in a much more timely manner had I given myself a deadline. But I was too cowardly to do so.

(Perhaps subconsciously, it was because I knew I’d have to complete Five Rings once I was done. But I can only imagine how satisfying getting to this same point (rough draft completion) will feel on that project, a hulking shadow that’s loomed over me for far too long.)

Anyway, I’d hoped The Machine would be a short story, but it grew and grew against my wishes and turned out to at least be novella-sized, just like my “reverse-retelling” of Pinocchio (an excerpt of which can be found right here).

Come to think of it, the two stories have a lot in common. Not only are both novella-length, but the lead characters are both young females, both stories have fantasy and fairytale elements, there’s subtle horror interspersed, and both stories have emotional twists at the end which attempt to tug at the reader’s heartstrings.

However, the themes, characters, style, and tone differ. The Machine, for example, is a rare Portal Fantasy that starts out in the fantasy world rather than the real world. Also, while Chio Pino: A Reverse Retelling of Pinocchio was written in First Person, The Machine was written entirely in Third-Person Limited (which happens to be my forte).

The scope-creep, though it was against my wishes, turned out to be a good thing. Instead of being just another 5k-or-less-word story I could try and submit to some online magazine or anthology, it will likely turn into another cover-worthy, salable book which can help me snowball my book sales (via rapid-release) once I’m ready to publish.

The Machine grew in organic ways that made sense, and it will still be edited to be as lean and mean as possible. I wouldn’t settle for anything less.

But not only was I overenthusiastic when I originally announced it, I misjudged how much the scope would creep throughout the course of the project. That’s my fault.

I thought I was ready to strap on rocket skates, but I wasn’t. Maybe now I am. And I’m self-aware enough to realize, by being so bold here, I could be setting myself up for another Wile E. Coyote moment.

For now, I recently declared the deadline for this story’s completion as August 3rd and I’m sticking by that date. I’m right on target to meet my commitment. Now it’s time to go full editor mode, which should be much easier now that I’ve completed the story. (Fingers crossed.)

Next, I’d like to share with you how I managed to get my ducks-in-a-row and go from having mixed-up piles of scatterbrained, unorganized notes across several projects and only 1/3rd of this story written, to having completed my rough draft so quickly.

See you next time.