Rival Demons News and The Beach

Woohoo! I’m doing a dance over here, because I just finished my rough draft for RIVAL DEMONS! Yay!!! I can’t believe it’s finished! It feels so amazing to have the rough draft of my fifth book completed just shy of one year since I started the first book in the series! Wow, it’s amazing how much things have changed for me in this past year.

So what’s next? Ah, the rewrites begin! For me, a rough draft is more of an exploration of where the story wants to go. I rarely use very much of it in the final book, which I know sounds weird, but it’s true. Now begins the true version of the book now that I’ve (hopefully) gotten most of the kinks out and am ready to write. For now, I’m heading to the gym with my plot cards and I’m going to jump on the treadmill for about an hour listening to music and thinking about what I want to change in the next draft. I love this part! It’s where the story really starts to come together for me!

Then, on Monday, I am lucky enough to have the entire week at Kure Beach with two of my good friends. We are all three writers and are planning to get so much done! We’ll be there until Saturday with nothing to do but walk on the beach and WRITE!!! I have set some huge goals for myself, so in order to keep myself motivated, I am going to keep posting my progress here on the blog. I hope to lose myself in Harper’s world – or actually more like Jackson’s world, come to think of it!

My goal for the beach week: 40,000 words. That would mean about 8,000 words a day on average, so a very lofty goal. It might not be possible, but I’m going to give it 100%. I always feel so inspired by the ocean, so when I feel burned out, I can just go for a long walk on the beach and get rejuvenated! I’m excited about the trip and excited to be done with the rough draft for Book 5. It’s definitely looking more and more like an October release date for RIVAL DEMONS!