A few minutes ago, I completed the final draft of Buk Tu (ie “Book Two” or the sequel to The Tale of Telsharu). Sam and I will submit the manuscript to our publisher tomorrow. After this, we move into final revisions, editing, and…publication!
This draft has taken a surprising and incredible amount of work. Last night I tried to describe to a friend what it’s been like, and had difficulty explaining. First of all, no chapter of the book was untouched in this revision. In every single chapter (and there are now 65 of them!) things changed. Some of the changes were small, a few word choices, or a new paragraph. But a clear majority of the chapters experienced what I would term “significant” adjustments. In my lingo, “significant” indicates either a major (50%+) portion of that chapter’s text changes, or less text changes, but the mood or the focus of the chapter undergoes a major alteration. Sometimes, those mood changes are actually more difficult to accomplish than when I just re-write larger blocks of text. Additionally, I added ~15,000 words worth of brand-new material into this draft. This involves not only the composition of the new prose, but also reweaving the surrounding chapters to make sure they flow, and that the continuity is not interrupted.
All that said, I am happy with where this draft is at. I am excited to progress with this book. I know that we have a number of readers who are eager to get their hands on it, and I am more than eager to be able to share it. From here all I can say is: Onward!