After months and months of writing Frigid Nights, my first draft is just a few writing sessions away from being complete! I wasn’t really all that aware of this fact until I was nearing the end of a chapter I had just been writing when I realize I didn’t have much more planned for the story. I have a couple more chapters that need writing but beyond that couple, I don’t have plans beyond that as far as the story goes. I was thinking of whether or not I needed to add more, but it’s occurred to me that the point I’m approaching may be the natural end of my story and doing anything more than that would drag something on much longer than it should be.
The heart-wrenching story of Derek and Jamie will be coming to a close as far as this story is concerned. After editing the draft myself a few times and sending it over to an editor, it may get longer or shorter but will have an overhaul I’m sure. The ending may be different or stay the same, but I’m going to be happy just at finishing the draft of my second novel and getting a break from that story while I work on some other works. One thing I need to do on my future stories is to follow what Stephen King said in that a first draft should take you no more than three months. Frigid Nights had a lot of the story written inside of that first three month period, but then I started to get lax and failed to keep up with that schedule and have now prolonged it to almost nine.
It’s wrapping up! Hopefully, it’ll be finished, edited, and on bookshelves soon! How long do your novel rough drafts go for? Do you aim to hit the draft out quickly or do you tend to let it stretch over months or even years?
Drew Schroeder 