Writing Update
Progress on LISHKA
Well, we’ve reached 2023! Something about this year makes me feel like we should be in a futuristic state but here I am at my computer, not on my personal spaceship, still editing LISHKA.
2022 was a bit on again/off again, I’ll admit. I did make progress on LISHKA, but not as much as I wanted. I’d hoped to publish it and yet am facing the hard reality of another year gone by with still a draft book. So I’ve decided to do what all good project managers do (my day job): make a Plan! A new plan (there have been plans before). That I will stick too.
Current status: I am editing chapter 29 out of 35 total, and the last two are baby chapters. I have about 30k words or so to go. The good news is that as of last week I’ve been writing every day. I’ve hit a solid pace and have been able to find excitement and joy in editing and creating. I’ve found that writing is a bit like going to the gym…not that I go to the gym. Motivation comes after the first few sessions.
January is also the perfect time to reset goals and push myself a little harder, whereas November and December were all about hibernation and eating. So much eating.
LISHKA has turned into a bit of a behemoth for a debut novel, clocking in at about 140k words, so I’m eager to see what beta readers think about plot and pacing. I mean, it’s fantasy. That means a larger book is allowed (right?). My plan right now is to push through about a chapter per week, and I’m happy to say I’m nicely on track. I should finish editing early February. At that point, I’ll use the Microsoft read-aloud feature to listen to the book start to finish and catch any glaring repetitions, typos, awkward sentence structure. They did an update a few months ago, which removed my favorite read-aloud voice, Microsoft David. Luckily, I’ve bonded with the new ‘female’ read-aloud voice, who I must admit is much less robotic.
My next step will be sending the book out to beta readers to get high-level feedback from my target audience. I’m both nervous and excited for this phase. Most of the people on my list are friends and coworkers, but who I trust to give me honest, insightful feedback.
A few life updates
In December, my husband and I flew to Spain for Christmas. His family lives there, so we joined them to celebrate the holidays. He’s from Ireland originally, but his family moved to Spain when he was around 13 or so.
Spain was a lovely respite from our PNW winter weather: 60-70 degree weather and sunny! Meanwhile back at home, the US experienced what the UK news called an ‘Artic Bomb’. Ironically (or coincidentally?), when we went to Spain the previous Christmas 2021, a massive snow storm also hit Bellingham. Both times, we escaped all the extreme weather and airport closures. We had a lovely trip with overall smooth travel (the exception being the Philadelphia customs process… why so many steps??).
This time around, I was determined to use the long travel time to work on LISHKA. I actually did revise/rewrite most of chapter 27 while on the plane back from Madrid to Philadelphia.
That’s all for now. I better stop procrastinating with this update and get back to editing.
