Introduction to the Accountability Post 2021 Week 20
Forty-nine. That’s the number of plot points, using Dan Wells’ Seven Point System, that will be in A Ghast in the Machine. One main plot with six subplots/arcs. As of yesterday, I have completed forty-seven. All that’s left are the final plot points for the main plot and Melchizedek “Dek” Conrad. If all goes well, and it might, this coming weekend, I should be able to finish the first draft. This is a huge improvement from where I was in December 2020!
The most interesting development this week was that I spent half of my writing time on Sunday designing a set I only intended to use once — at least, in this book. It’s Plantación de Porter, near the lake Laguna Don Tomas, in Santa Rosa, Argentina. I won’t tell you if Porter made it there or not. That’s because I want to leave some mystery for you when you read the book for the first time! But I intend for the design work to pay off in the future. The book turned out to have more international locations, like Santa Rosa, than I expected, at least from my perspective as an American. I hope I did justice to all the locations and peoples!
Accountability Post 2021 Week 20 By the Numbers
The previous week, I wrote 8,165 words to take the total to 129,649. Let’s take a look at how this week looked:
I can’t really complain about the progress I made this week!
I’ve pushed the total to 136,425, which means during this week, I wrote 6,776. Not quote as many words as the previous week, but not bad, considering I spent 1/6 of the time on set design!
When you write, can you feel where you are in the plot? For the first time, as I wrote this book, each plot felt a little different. It was subtle, but it was definitely there. I’ve read a lot of writers say they just instinctively sense the plot, and I respect them for that. Especially since I can’t do it! This idea of the seven plot points gave me a sense for plot that I lacked, at least at the conscious level. I’m really excited to start plotting the next book, but I’m not touching it until I get this draft done.
What’s Next?
My next steps are clear to me: Finish this draft, then add the Ghast super structure. The concepts and plot points for the Ghast span multiple trilogies, kind of like the mystery surrounding Skippy’s origins span the series (at least as many as I’ve ready!) for Craig Alanson’s Expeditionary Force novels.
Once I finish that, I think I’ll let the manuscript sit for a week, then go back though it to reorder a couple of chapters and go through the To Do list I built as I wrote the first draft. There’s some terminology I want to standardize and some scenes I have to refactor.
What’s after that is less clear. I might try to find a developmental editor. I belong to a Facebook group called 20 Books to 50K — as in $50,000.00. I’ve read through their conversations about finding a developmental editor, and I’ve come to the conclusion that there is one way to find out for sure if that’s the course for me: Try it. I’m looking at Reedsy right now. Have you had any experience with them? If you’re so inclined, I’d love to read your experience in the comments!
Feedback Welcome!
Do you have any news about what you’re working on? Any tips about how you keep focused? Have you read anything that struck your fancy? I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments!
