Welp.
I’ve gotten a lot done this month. I really, really have. I don’t think I’ll quite make it to 50,000 by the 30th this year for NaNoWriMo, but I’ll be close. The important thing is going to be keeping the momentum going – because I want to have the “gamma” draft ready to give out to my advance readers before the end of the year. The beginning of the book is looking quite good, if I do say so myself. The middle and the end are still pretty awkward, but they’re taking shape, and starting to connect. Jul and Camille are starting to have more distinct voices (Mac always has), and I’ll be working on making them even more personalized in final edits.

I’ve been looking a lot more into self-publishing guides, and I feel like that’s going to be the right path for me. If all goes well, I’m hoping to have book 1 ready to publish early summer. (!!!) Sorry, did you hear that? That was a minor freakout. Please ignore.

Formatting a manuscript for e-publishing sounds like a time-consuming task, but doable. Luckily it sounds like I’m going to have a whole squad of grammarnazis reading this draft, so they should be able to help me prune out stupid mistakes. I am very lucky to have a lot of intelligent people stepping forward, offering valuable feedback. It’s comforting to know that I can test out my wacky little world in a safe place before releasing it into the wild.

I’m also remembering now that I need to make illustrations, like I’d always planned…those should be included in this draft (!!!) so that’s another thing to add to the plate. What? Another freakout? Yeah, that happens.

And, once he’s done with school for this semester, I’ll be calling upon my fantastically talented brother John (designbyCrabtree) to design the cover. I have a vague idea of what I want it to look like, and I expect it’ll be quite fabulous once John gets done with it. The cover feels really important to me, because that’s what people see first when they’re browsing books online – an eye-catching cover will get them to read the synopsis, and a good synopsis will get them to read the book. As a first-time author, I’m hoping that great cover art will set me apart from the pack. It certainly can’t hurt. I know I would have a hard time buying something with a campy looking cover.

Gah, this is all starting to feel so serious. I need to go draw a cartoon just to balance myself out.

Ganbatte, writer-san.

/cast iPod [Pierce the Veil – The First Punch]