Earlier this month I started the first draft of the second book of the trilogy, Wilders. I was tired of editing The Distant and wanted to get moving on the ideas for the next book while they were still fresh. This is a good thing for me, because as I write I always come up with new stuff that I didn't think of while outlining, and I figure out ways to work it in (or just do it even if it doesn't quite fit and revise earlier material later on to make it fit).
Such is the case with Wilders. I've got about 20K words so far, which is roughly 1K words a day (my target). It's coming along great and there are a number of things in The Distant that I now need to revise given the content I've written so far, as well as some new material I'm going to insert to make later events more impactful. Seems like a strange way of writing, but hopefully I can get the majority of the Wilders first draft done before I finalize The Distant.
I'm just not the kind of writer that can plan every detail out before writing a single word, so I don't foresee an epic series in my future. I can't imagine how some of those guys like Robert Jordan or George R.R. Martin do it... epic, multi-book series are a lot of work. So give GRRM a break on how slow he's been with his books lately.
Fourth Draft - The Distant
I read through The Distant before doing any work on the fourth draft. There were a few places where I got bored and realized some trimming was needed. I've done a little more rearranging and condensing of chapters to alleviate that, cutting the boring parts and focusing only on content that is important. I'm currently reading the Chung Kuo series by David Wingrove (the original version, which is awesome, by the way) and I love the pace of the books, the way he just focuses on important plot points and never gets too long-winded with the exposition. So it's inspired me to streamline my writing and never let the reader get bored.
Because of that, I've cut another 10K words, and am down to 176K. Hopefully I can finish under 170K. The book is split into two parts, so it's essentially two 80K-90K books, which feels about the right size to me. I'm switching back and forth between the fourth draft of The Distant and writing Wilders, which helps because then I don't get too bored doing the same thing all the time. As long as I work on something each day, I feel like I'm progressing.
The Trilogy - The Hope of Memory
I think I mentioned before that I had a working trilogy title of Of Houlves and Humans. I never liked this title and have been racking my brain for a new one. Finally one came to me during a walk, after I had started Wilders. It's going to be called The Hope of Memory. This is the final title.
Also, have been working on possible cover art... here is something that will be part of the cover for The Distant. What is it? Well, you'll just have to read and find out when the book is released.
The Hope of Memory Updates
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2012-07-31 Keep on Truckin'
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2012-05-23 Third Draft Complete
2012-04-22 Expanding to a Trilogy
2012-03-10 Remembering & AutoHotkey
2012-02-08 Third Draft