Hello!

At this point I've hit quite a few milestones while writing my novel: starting the story; finishing that first draft; closing out the first major revision; and so many minor achievements in between. That's all well and good—but my most recent milestone feels wholly different, because it's the first time people other than my immediate family are seeing what I've been working on.

As of a few days ago, the first third of my manuscript reached the hands (or screens) of its first readers. It feels a little surreal. It's hard to articulate why, exactly—it's just an odd feeling to let anyone else see something I've poured hundreds and hundreds of hours of my life into; that has, until now, lived almost entirely in my own head. Knowing that the story—albeit in this imperfect, inchoate form—will now live in the heads of others....

I'm excited to hear early feedback and critiques. The journey is far from over; there are many milestones ahead. But this one feels special. Thank you again to my early readers, and to all of you for supporting me along the way!

PS – I'm keeping today's newsletter very short, as I have family visiting and I'm channeling my free time into writing. We'll return to the usual format (and verbosity) next time!

☕ Project Curses

In the last newsletter I finally got to share my full progress bar for the revision. This one may not look that different if you're just glancing at it—but if you peer closely at the tiny text down there, it says I've now edited over 90% of the novel.

Surprise!

This is, of course, the first of many edits, and so it might be more apt to say that I'm 90% through the first, quick pass before sending the rest of the manuscript out to beta readers—but again, I'm taking wins where I can get them.

The real surprise, then, is that beta readers can now expect the full manuscript to be available sometime during the week of 2/9 – 2/15. Be on the lookout!

♟️ Project Rift

Unfortunately, the progress bar schtick doesn't do a good job of showing all the work that goes into rewriting chapters. My approach to this novel is quite different, with a lot more revision work on the front end, and that doesn't jive as well with visual representation. What I'm trying to say is that progress is happening—it's just been very two steps forward, one step back.

Brandon Sanderson's writing isn't my favorite, per se, but he is one of the writers I admire most. There are a bunch of reasons for this—his passion for genre fiction, his generosity in sharing his writing lectures and resources for free—which all boil down to the fact that he seems to be a really decent person in the writing and publishing space.

He just gave a keynote speech at his fan convention (he's been having a lot of success these last years, including the recent announcement that all of his books have been picked up for adaptation by Apple TV), and it's one of the best attempts to articulate why AI writing and AI assisted writing feel so wrong to so many in the writing community. I recommend watching the full speech, but the gist of what he says is this: we are the art. The experience brought to the page—the growth that comes from doing the thing and finding a voice—that's what makes it matter, to the writer and everyone who reads it. Art isn't a commodity; it's a journey. This isn't a revolutionary message, but it is one that is important to state well and often—now more than ever.

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