Well, I finished the draft for book two! Summoned to the Wilds took me 28 days with a pretty tight outline and a good feel for what needed to happen to get me to the ending. Here’s my word count per day for the last month-ish:
| 2/24 – 5430 | 3/7 – 4606 | 3/17 – 4387 |
| 2/25 – 6035 | 3/8 – 4858 | 3/18 – 3944 |
| 2/27 – 4537 | 3/9 – 5013 | 3/19 – 0 |
| 2/28 – 5209 | 3/10 – 4297 | 3/20 – 0 |
| 3/1 – 3808 | 3/11 – 3517 | 3/21 – 234 |
| 3/2 – 3827 | 3/12 – 2023 | 3/22 – 2898 |
| 3/3 – 3934 | 3/13 – 0 | 3/23 – 1725 |
| 3/4 – 3900 | 3/14 – 6261 | 3/24 – 3895 |
| 3/5 – 0 | 3/15 – 4560 | TOTAL: |
| 3/6 – 0 | 3/16 – 3709 | 95,887 |
I didn’t get the 5k I was hoping for each day, many times not even close, but I produced some really fun words and very silly scenes. Conversely, I found myself writing some more sErIoUs romance throughout this book too, and some icky eldritchy horror with a sprinkling of TrAuMa and probably too much assault, and I was like, “uh, is this not a comedy anymore???” But then I just went with it because I’m writing all these drafts first and allowing whatever to come out and worrying about fixing the tone and consistency later.
You can see the book’s a little “short” at just under 96k. I have a few chapters that aren’t fully fleshed out and will be heavily reliant on some details coming later in book three. I also assume I’ll be adding some stuff in editing including a possible mini arc, so we’ll see how long it actually ends up.
Fun surprises: The ending of this book took a tuuuuurn. I knew what I wanted to happen and where I needed them to end up to open book three, but I added on a fun layer, expanding a different plot thread, and I am thrilled to say it became something I really enjoyed. Also I introduced a small retinue of characters that I loved writing, one of which delivers what might be my favorite “funny” line of the book. (Quotes because it’s funny in, like, a thoughtful kinda terrible way as opposed to a “haha” way.) I’ve also set up a couple antagonists for book three and allowed my main rival to have a spotlight in this book, and he might be the best villain I’ve ever come up with which may not be saying much, but hopefully it’s a jumping off point for more complex antagonists going forward.
But here’s my biggest problem: the ending for the entire series, the one I’ve had planned out since I first conceived of these characters, miiiight not fit the story anymore. I mean, it does in theory, and the events do need to happen, but it doesn’t quite feel like the proper climax now. So, that’s a bit of a crisis I’m planning on having early tomorrow morning while I look over my outline and figure out how to get these dummies to their happily ever after. I also need to go through all the weird, little notes I’ve left myself and cobble them all together to make sure everything I’ve hinted at in these other books actually ends up happening.
I have a feeling tomorrow will be all wandering around the house and talking to myself, but that’s just like taking a small bite out of my normal day and expanding it.
Oh, also, I think I’ve found my artist for the covers, and I am totally jazzed!
The series drafting experiment continues on the morrow!
A.K. Caggiano 