Well, exams are finally over, which means I can finally get back to focusing on my writing. Thankfully it didn’t take long to get back in the swing of things. I think part of that has to do with reducing my goals during exams rather than eliminating them. By just doing a little bit every day I was able to keep the world and its characters vivid in my imagination. It made the transition back to focusing on higher word count goals much easier.
I am hoping to finish this rough draft of my new manuscript soon. I am excited because it ties in my first novella Just Under the Sky and expands on the mythology of the world. I know it’ll be a bit of a mess when I finish it but it’ll be a fun mess. A mess worth cleaning up because the end goal is having the first text that ties a lot of my future ideas together. This excites me because it’ll mean even when I write standalone books they’ll still have some connection to my other work even if they aren’t a part of the same series.
Currently, the draft is at 70k words. I’m nervous because I don’t want the ending to be rushed, and I know it’ll be a series but I also don’t want too many side plots to be unresolved in the first book. Like there are so many things going on with my three main characters I want their smaller goals to be completed by the time I finish and just have the main quest really be the one feeding into future books in the series.
As mentioned before once I finish this draft I can get back to focusing on manuscripts I wrote earlier this year. I had one major idea change in one of my rough drafts. The good news is I love the story, the bad news is it’ll rely on MASSIVE rewrites.
Anyway, I don’t want to bore you all with the details. That can be another blog post’s problem later. Today I just want to give recognition to a couple of booktube/reviewer friends I’ve made.
First, congratulations to my friend Gabby for breaking 5000 subscribers on Youtube.
The first video I saw of hers was her August Wrap Up I believe
The video included a review of IT, and though the movies have always been too scary for me (the original giving me nightmares for weeks) I always enjoyed hearing reviews of the book itself. Gabby’s channel is just an awesome place to visit on Youtube. She and I have bonded over books, movies, music, all of which make appearances in her videos. That’s what I like about her, it’s not just book reviews it’s everything.
The second channel I wanted to give a shout out to is LiteraryLizzzy (yes 3 z’s). Lizzy and I became friends on her channel. She actually reviewed a couple of my books too (yes flattery helps build friendships lol). She is a really hard working Booktuber, keeping up with a lot of book challenges, readathons, and runs a book club. She gives great recommendations and offers highly entertaining content.
R.K. Gold 