This Just In!

I have made some excellent and admirable progress on my novel and I am so pleased.

First off, I have a working title: Muligul Girl. I say working title because I don’t know if I’ll keep it. I do like it and I think it encapsulates what the book is about (which will make more sense when I share the jacket copy), but I’m not sure how on trend it is, which is something important when publishing a book. For example, a lot of fantasy books right now have titles along the lines of “A ______ of ______” (A Game of Thrones popularized that trend) or “A _______ of _______ and _______” (here’s looking at you, A Court of Thorns and Roses). While not necessary, strictly speaking, it does help readers recognize that your book belongs to a certain genre and make them more likely to pick it up.

Speaking of genre, I can officially say that Muligul Girl is a fantasy western. This has been an interesting genre for me to write in since I’ve never read a fantasy western and at the time of writing my first draft, I had only ever read one western in my life (Lonesome Dove, which I highly recommend). So this means that I simply wrote the story as it came to me, and didn’t worry about tropes or what does or does not constitute a western. But given that it takes place in a western-style setting and involves magic, a fantasy western it is.

But most importantly, I have finished Draft 7! Hooray! This means I finally have every single chapter written in at least a first draft form (if it seems like I’m all over the place while drafting and revising this novel, that’s because I am; it’s not a very efficient way of writing, but it’s working for me). This is a huge accomplishment. I cannot stress enough that I have never gotten this far in the writing process before and I am so proud of myself. The story is currently at 114,000 words, which is well within the range of a fantasy novel (which is 90,000-120,000 words), and it isn’t likely to grow too much more.

So what next? Why, more revising, of course! The beginning chapters are pretty strong, and the ending chapters are pretty strong, but there are a lot of chapters scattered throughout the middle that need a lot of work. They’re either partially-written, or a bunch of scenes cobbled together without any sort of flow, or there are little details that need to be worked in or ironed out. That kind of thing.

Revising has been taking me about 2 months per pass, which feels agonizingly long while I’m in it. Starting over at the beginning each time is daunting. And yes, there are better and more efficient ways to revise, but this is working for me and I’m seeing noticeable progress, so I’m sticking with it.

So that’s it: Muligul Girl. 114,000 words. Fantasy western.

Shiny.

Apis mellifera on Rosa nutkana