Echo-A Dystopian Science Fiction Novel: Update

Word Count:  51336

News:  Thanks to everybody who bought Echo so far, and BIG thanks to Melissa, Barbara, Ian, [anonymous], and Lorna for leaving extremely favorable reviews.  Sorry for all this FB nonsense, please just check dirtyscifibuddha.com if something like this happens again; WordPress has been good to me and all my posts originate from it.  Everybody I haven’t re-friended on FB, my apologies.  The FB search engine sometimes returns reams of results if you have a more generically used name.  I’m trying to hunt down and re-friend people systematically, but it will take time.

I topped 50k words!  Fulfilled my NaNoWriMo obligation!  (Or do you have to write 50k within the month specifically?  I don’t know).  Anyways, the next few days I’ll get back into my regular routine until the 20th, then I’ll go on social media break (aside from Sunday updates) to make myself write 1000 words/day.

Ok, I’m glad I got past the 50k mark.  One reason I’m slow about this stuff is that I edit so much.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:  You would not want to read my first drafts.  As a matter of fact, I look back at volume 1 and I can’t stand reading it-even the finished version.  But that’s good, right?  It means I’m developing (hopefully).  I actually calculated that for every page I write, I look over and edit around 15-20 pages, which means 90%+ pages I look at are for editing.  When I started, I naively assumed that you only needed two drafts to make something readable.  Nope.

Also, I’ve had multiple complaints about the cliffhanger ending/shortness of volume 1, so while volume 2 will end with a cliffhanger (Because of my PhD in comics 🙂 , I actually try to end each chapter with some kind of cliffhanger, whether it be an event, through its rhythm, or an implication) it will be substantially longer, hopefully giving enough story meat to sate some reader appetites.

I’ve ordered art from a new artist on fiverr and I will post it as soon as it is available.  He/she is named emilianohc and his/her stuff looks fantastic.  I submitted my design idea and while it is simple, I think it is cool, symbolic, and tells a story in and of itself.  So I’ll put that up as soon as I get it.  Anyways, as always, back to work!  To all you writers, I wish you inspired drafting and insightful editing!