Posts Tagged ‘first draft’

Manuscript in da house!

I am pleased to report that as of today, I have completed my first draft of The 4400: Promises Broken.

The novel clocks in at roughly 75,000 words — lean and mean, considering the epic scope of the story I set out to tell within its pages. Set after the show’s cliffhanger final episode (and following up on the events of Greg Cox’s upcoming post-finale novel The 4400: Welcome to Promise City), Promises Broken is intended to serve as a sort of grand finale to the saga of The 4400.

The spell-check is done. The title page, dedication, and epigraph are in place. The acknowledgments and “about the author” pages are written and tacked on to the end. Now I think I’ll take a few hours off, get a shower, make dinner for my wife when she gets home, and have a beer to celebrate.

I’ll be spending the weekend reading through the manuscript and doing some very fast polishing. On Monday, the ms. goes to madam editor. Then I will take a couple of days to read my just-arrived copy of A Case of Conscience by James Blish.

On Wednesday, I will pick up the copy edited manuscript of The Calling and begin making my final revisions to that tale. My thanks to all of you reading this who have provided me feedback on the rough draft; to those of you who still haven’t done so, you have until Wednesday to get me your input. (You know who you are…)

Now, if you’ll excuse me, my ice-cold Spaten awaits…

Lost Souls on paper

It is my pleasure to report that I have, this evening, finished the first-draft manuscript of the final volume of the Star Trek Destiny trilogy, Lost Souls.

I still need to do a read-through and polishing draft, and it then it will need to go to my beta readers for seriously rushed comments and revisions so that I can turn this in before I leave for Mexico…

…but the manuscript is done, and I feel good about it.

It clocks in at 108k words, 490pp. I have been slogging away on this project for 16 months now, and there are still more months of copyediting, line editing, rewrites, and page proofs to come.

But at least all the fucking manuscripts finally exist. Hallelujah.

Two Down. One to Go.

As of this evening at 9:15 p.m. ET, the draft manuscript for Star Trek Destiny: Mere Mortals, is finished. Final word count: just a wee dram over 100k.

Spell check is completed.

Now I’m putting it down for 48 hours. Tomorrow is a day off with my lovely wife, and on Wednesday I must report back to my full-time job.

But on Wednesday night, when I come home, and after I have dinner, I will begin my read-through and polishing draft. If all continues to go as hoped, it will be off to my beta readers over the weekend.

And while I await their feedback, I will begin the last leg of my literary death march, into part the third: Lost Souls.

Happy New Year, f-listers!

~ Dave

Houston, we have a manuscript

I am pleased to post that, as of 2:30 a.m. today, I have finished the first-draft manuscript for Gods of Night, the first book in the Star Trek Destiny trilogy.

As a reward, I will now have ice cream. Then I will sleep.

Tomorrow, I will watch some DVDs and read a bit, just for pleasure.

On Monday I will start my read-through of the ms., to make certain that it’s internally consistent, and to polish it up as I go along. If all goes well, I will turn it in to my editors by the end of the week, and move on to book two, Mere Mortals next weekend.

One down, two to go. Yee. And, might I add, Haw.