Two Drafts Down

This afternoon, I finished the second draft of my novel.

My plan is to put it aside for a few months and eventually go over it again with a fine-toothed comb, fixing things like vocabulary and sentence structure. For now, I'm just glad it seems a lot better than the first draft to me. Subplots are not left dangling, certain events feel more plausible, and details are ironed out.

After finishing editing today, I worked on the final version of a map for my book(s). My mom had spilled a drop of tea on it and it got crinkled and brown in one area, and I also had to change some names. I took the old map and made a makeshift light table with a clear plastic box, two stacks of books, and a small lamp underneath, then traced the old map. I drew it all in pencil and then carefully drew over the land, rivers, and cities with black ink. Copying the Lord of the Rings map/poster I have in my room, I made the roads and place names in red ink. It almost needs to be a larger map, for all the names to fit and still see the land formations, but it's good enough for me to use to judge traveling distances and remember place names.

It feels strange to not have to work on this big project anymore. Maybe it will feel liberating, since school starts again soon and I have a whole new country to explore. Or perhaps, after a while, I will long to have a big project and work on it again.

Photo: A sneak peek of the map that I made. If you are one of my "beta readers," you'll see familiar landmarks...