So, I finished the first draft of Operational Considerations.
It still needs work. And it still needs a cover. I’m working on both of those things. When I get the cover sorted out, I plan to immediately make it available for pre-order while I continued to edit it.
I know it needs some work. For example, the primary antagonist only appears once on the page before the climax. I need to foreshadow his involvement more. I also need to better show the effects the events are having on Jimmy. Right now, he feels like he’s alternating between being okay and being stressed, when he should really be stressed, but trying not to show it. So I need to tweak a lot of his interactions with the others.
I also need to give Jimmy’s best friend, James, a POV section. I told myself I was going to do that, and I knew which part would be his POV, but for some reason, I forgot all about it when it came time to write that part and wrote it from Jimmy’s POV. It’s important to me that the other characters all get POV sections in this series, and so far, there are only three sections from someone’s POV other than Jimmy’s, and two of them are quite short.
It’s work, now. Writing the draft is fun, and feels great. It’s relaxing, and doesn’t feel at all like a job. But editing… Editing is work. Don’t get me wrong, I love the changes I make when I’m editing. I love seeing my darling story improve and come together better.
I’ll probably have to do the cover myself, which is nice in that it’ll end up in the same style as Buffer Overflow‘s cover. Right now, all three of my books have very different looking covers, and the typography is the only thing bringing them together. So hey, maybe this will be a good thing. I really do need good reasons to practice my painting.