Acts of War: Aftershock – Week 11 Update
Eleven weeks and I have a true first draft, something I can show other human beings without shame or terror (well, maybe a little terror).
Progress: I’ve finished my read-through of the first draft of Acts of War: Aftershock, fixed the errors I found, and I have sent it off to Privateer Press for review. As usual, I removed a fair amount of text during my proofing pass, tightening up sentences or even outright removing entire passages that weren’t working or simply weren’t needed. I also fixed a metric ton of typos and formatting errors, wrangled a few plot holes, and came to terms with my unnatural love of semicolons (mostly).
The Best Part: Deep breath. The first draft is truly and completely done and out of my hands. That’s a nice feeling, and I can relax a little while I wait for Privateer Press to review the manuscript. It’ll be weeks before I get any feedback, and I can turn my attention to other projects (some for Privateer Press) and not worry about the novel for a little while. Okay, not worry about the novel as much for a little while.
The Hard Part: Holding pattern. Of course, part of finishing a novel is waiting for the inevitable feedback. The fear that what you’ve written is not what the publisher wants is very real, even if it’s a little unwarranted. With an approved and detailed outline, Privateer knows more or less what they’re going to get, and I certainly didn’t stray from the outline in a major way. There will always be elements of a first draft that don’t work or are simply not what the publisher wants, but the editors at Privateer are fantastic at communicating what they want in their feedback, and I’ve worked with them closely for that last seven years.
Mini Excerpt: Today’s mini-excerpt introduces a new character, Sergeant William Harcourt, a young soldier who is a bit more gifted than he (or anyone) first believed. The concept art for today features a journeyman warcaster, and I’m not saying Sergeant Harcourt looks like this guy, but I’m not saying he doesn’t look like this guy. 🙂
Good; you’re in,” Stryker said. “Now give him an order. Tell him to walk ten paces away from you.”
“Rowdy, walk—“Harcourt began.
“No, with your mind,” Stryker said. “Think it at him.”
Harcourt was silent for a moment, and then Rowdy took a step and another. Stryker counted ten before the Ironclad stopped. The warjack turned back toward Harcourt and vented steam in a low whistle. The tone was unmistakable. Now what?
“Excellent,” Stryker said. “You have control of him, and you can give him orders, but you can do more than that. In combat, you can guide his attacks, make them more accurate or hit harder. You can also push him to charge an enemy, trample infantry, or grapple another warjack. Rowdy is special, though. He doesn’t take much coaxing to get into a fight.”
“Yes, I’ve seen that, sir,” Harcourt said and chuckled.
Nothing like a little Warjack 101, right? Wonder what else Stryker has imparted to our neophyte warcaster.
If you have a question or comment about the book or my writing process, ask away in the comments section below. And if you’ve missed the updates for the previous weeks, you can find them right here:
- Week 1 Update
- Week 2 Update
- Week 3 Update
- Week 4 Update
- Week 5 Update
- Week 6 Update
- Week 7 Update
- Week 8 Update
- Week 9 Update
- Week 10 Update
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Check out the first book in this series, Acts of War: Flashpoint, if you haven’t already. You can get the e-book at 25% off from the Skull Island eXpeditions website by entering the code ACTSOFWAR1 at checkout.
3 Comments on “Acts of War: Aftershock – Week 11 Update”
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Acts of War: Flashpoint
Acts of War: Aftershock
Acts of War: Stormbreak
Aeryn Rudel's Rejectomancy 
“Now give him order?” or “Now give him an order?”
The latter. First draft woes, don’t you know. 🙂 Fixed.
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