Home stretch for Descant & fighting apathy

Finishing Descant draft 2 felt so good. There were lots of revelations, things that came to me like the Universe handed them over, characters who spoke up and said “You know, that’s not the kind of man I am” or “hey, why am I doing it that way when I could try this?”

I suppose that sounds slightly unhinged to people who don’t write, but most authors will tell you their characters talk to them. Often. Characters are pushy AF, and are full of surprises. It’s when they stop speaking you get a little worried.

Now that the entire book is completely pieced together and finished, thoughts from others have been calibrated, and I’m in the throes of editing big time… the urge to say “shtû it” beckons.

Book 2 of the Drazoen Heralds comes with Aoni curse words, by the way.

How much easier it would be to let it rip as is, not worry about spelling, punctuation choices and clarity of prose, if I’ve under or over explained something. I know there are writers who do that, and some of them are far more successful than I am at this point. That isn’t me; I’m more likely to go over it so much it stops having any meaning to me anymore. Can’t deny I want to throw up my hands and click “publish” though.

If you need me, I’ll be the one in the corner reading Descant aloud a couple more times, verifying the word counts between characters are roughly equal, and updating a 9-story shared timeline that takes two closet doors to hold. By book three I might have to get the damn thing professionally printed and wallpaper part of my office….