Hello!

In my last newsletter, I mentioned that I wanted to use this reflection to discuss what happens after I "finish" my novel—and following a shockingly productive weekend of writing (I'm over 80%!!) that feels particularly salient. So, let’s chat.

I’ve mentioned before that I plan to (attempt to) go the traditional publishing route to publish Project Curses. There are a lot of reasons for this (e.g., gaining valuable experience, perceived prestige, building industry connections), but the main one is that, while indie publishing is a totally viable route these days, it requires a lot of time, and a lot of effort, and building a lot of expertise in marketing, publicity, and promotion. That’s fine, but I already have a full-time job, and I’d like to spend what little time I do have focused on writing.

So, the traditional route it is. To prepare myself for this, I’ve started to do some casual(ly obsessive) research into how traditional publishing works—I’ve read books, blogs, and articles, listened to podcasts and lectures, and talked to the one industry connection I have, all of which has been eminently helpful…albeit demoralizing. At an elementary level (note: I’m using crayons for emphasis), the path forward looks a little something like this:

Easy, right? I mean, it really isn’t not easy—these are the necessary steps to getting my book on shelves. And, c’mon, it’s written in crayon. But, as always, the devil is in the details. Let’s take a closer look at those steps:

Okay. Wow. That’s definitely more intimidating. And, to be real, this is still a very stripped down version of what goes into getting a book into the world...I just couldn't be bothered to write more little blurbs. But it should be clear there’s a lot of uncertainty in the process, and there are long, long odds (note: I also want to recognize that these odds aren’t even that bad, for me; folks who have intersectional identities which have been marginalized in any way—be it their sex, gender, ability, color, creed, or origin—have an even more difficult time breaking into the traditional publishing space).

Still—it is manageable, and tantalizingly possible. I believe I can do it. What’s more—and it’s hard for me to write this, because I have an almost pathological aversion to praising my own work—I’m really proud of the story I’m telling, and I genuinely believe it can go the distance.

Hand-wringing and second-guessing aside, let’s take a look at what the rest of the year will actually look like for the novel. These are rough estimates, of course—and this is an aggressive timeline—but I feel good about it. Writing this initial draft—proving to myself that I can write it—has been the hardest part. The rest will follow. Or not. It's okay either way!

• August
  • Finish writing the manuscript (Draft 0)! Celebrate!
  • Read through the entire draft and finish my revision guide.
  • Start the complete rewrite of the novel (Draft 1).
• September
  • Finish Draft 1, focusing on consistency and filling in any plot holes.
  • Send Draft 1 to Alpha readers (i.e., first readers with editing experience who can help diagnose problems).
  • Use the notes from Alpha readers to create a new revision guide.
• October
  • Start and finish the second complete rewrite of the manuscript (Draft 2), focusing on integrating notes and addressing issue areas.
  • Send Draft 2 to Beta readers (i.e., general audience members [maybe some of you? More on that another time!] who can provide less detailed feedback and an impression of how the book will be received by the public).
  • Use the notes from Beta readers to create a new revision guide.
• November
  • Start and finish a rewrite of all of the problem areas identified by Beta readers. When doing so, conduct line and copy edits for the entire manuscript (i.e., grammar and style) (Draft 3).
  • Send readers sections of Draft 3 that have been rewritten to gauge their reactions.
  • Make a list of potential literary agents.
• December
  • Rewrite or tidy any remaining issue areas identified by readers. Finish line and copy edits (Draft 3.5).
  • Conduct a final read-through of the novel, out loud, tweaking prose to sound natural and ring true.
  • Consolidate the list of agents to between 30-60. Draft query letters to the first third.
• January
  • Begin the querying process.

This is, admittedly, a lot. But…it’s tangible, you know? In six months I’ll have a proofed, polished manuscript of a book I believe in going out to the people who could champion it towards publication. The journey doesn’t end there—there will still be a lot of mountain left to climb, assuming I do get an offer of representation—but the hardest part, for me, will be done.

Until I start my next book, and do it all again. Sisyphus who?

Anyway, thanks for bearing with me as I process this with you. As always, I’m incredibly grateful to have you on this journey with me.

✌️Corbett

PS I’m stoked to have heard from so many of you about trying out the “Reclaim Your Brain” newsletter from my last Show & Tell! I hope it’s a fantastic experience for everyone—it’s certainly made a huge difference for me (my phone usage was under an hour per day last week)! If you’re new here, or if you missed it last time, I highly recommend checking it out here!

PPS As always, I encourage you to forward this newsletter to friends—and if someone shared this with you and you'd like to see more, you can subscribe on my website!

✍️ Writing Updates

💌 Newsletter Update

I started Coffee Chats with a vague idea that it would be a newsletter where I shared updates about my writing and sent out a few recommendations, when I had them. It’s become a lot more than that—it’s a tool to connect with y’all, and to share my thoughts, and to talk about writing, and media, and more. It’s a nice, niche little corner of the internet, and I’m glad to have you all here with me.

But when I say the newsletter started with a vague idea, I really mean it—I threw it together haphazardly, in response to both the news that I’d have a story published soon and to provide people updates on that story following my father-in-law announcing that I would be a published author at Sarah and I's wedding (thank you for the support, John!).

Now, almost a year on, I have a much better idea of what I want to share, and how I want to share it—not to mention a good deal more of you following along. What I’m trying to say is that there’s a new newsletter template in the works, as well as some tweaks and updates that will come along with that. My hope is that these changes will bring Coffee Chats closer to what I hope it can be—a cozy conversation, between friends, over a mug of something warm.

I’m not certain when these changes will go live—probably not until after I finish Draft 0—but that’s not too far off!

🗝️ Project Curses Update

I think the intro was quite enough for today, so we’ll keep this brief. Here are my updated stats!

• Total Word Count: 89,042 words (+12,660 since last time)
• Completion: 81.5% completed / 18.5% remaining
• Other Stats:
  • 26 total chapters completed (+4 from last time)
  • 952 words per day (rolling average) (+79 from last time)
  • 19 days until completion (at current rate) (-15 from last time)

🎯 Challenge Update

My challenge for this month is to maintain a minimum daily word count of 800 words and to complete as much of my first revision guide as I can. I’m pleased to share that I’m doing well on both items! As you can see above, my words per day are in great shape, and I’ve made good progress on the revision guide (though I can’t “finish” it until the draft is finished).

Starting in August, and likely until the novel is finished, I’ll replace this subsection of the newsletter with an update on the timeline I shared up above. Finishing the book will be challenge enough!

😻 Recent Favorites

📚 Reading

• ​Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah // This book is brilliant, and harrowing, and brilliant. It’s a narrative, character driven story that feels like a grown-up, near future take on the Hunger Games, which is amazing in its own right, but that, at the same time, serves as both critique and satire of the United States’ carceral system, the prison-industrial complex, the influence of corporations and lobbyists over the government, sports entertainment, and the death penalty. Yeah, I know. Buckle up.

🎧 Listening

• Honestly, I’ve been writing so much lately that I’ve mostly just listened to my creatively name Writing playlist. I’ve got a ton of music on there, but I’m always looking for more—if you have recommendations for instrumental music, soundtracks, scores, or chill music in languages I don’t speak, please send them my way!

🍿 Watching

• ​The Bear // Sarah and I are huge fans of FX's The Bear, and, like many Zillenial couples, we now regularly shout “BEHIND!” and “CORNER!” at each other, especially when it’s not necessary. Season 3, which dropped at the end of June, was, as expected, amazing, even though it felt like it was mostly setting up Season 4. If you haven’t watched the show before, I couldn’t recommend it more (though definitely save it for when you are neither anxious nor hungry).

📋 Show & Tell

I’ll get back to sharing quotes and photos and whatnot next time, but because this has come up in several real-life conversations recently, I thought I’d share it here too. In a sort of oblique follow-up to the Show & Tell from last time, I want to recommend Todoist, which is the service I use to track my tasks and block my calendar. I know I sound lame. I’m really busy, okay?

Seriously though. Between my job, writing the novel, sending out this newsletter, and connecting with friends and family all over the country, I need somewhere to shove all of my tasks and responsibilities and scattered thoughts so that I can focus on actually doing things. There’s a quote attributed to productivity writer David Allen, but which a bunch of folks have said some version of (including Einstein), that I really believe in: “Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.”

I mean, that’s actually the show and tell here. Writing stuff down is awesome. It makes modern life way less stressful. Todoist is just a convenient place to do it.

Also, to be clear, this isn’t any sort of ad, and I don’t get a referral bonus or anything. I just really like the app.

Anyway, the TL;DR is that Todoist is a task manager app that’s well-designed, fast, flexible, and integrates with Google Calendar. It works on every platform and has a bunch of handy features, most of which are available for free—though there’s a premium subscription that lets you do even more nifty stuff, because of course there is. I’ve tried basically every app and service in this category, and Todoist is by far my favorite.

Check it out, if this is your kind of thing! If digital task management isn’t for you, that’s okay too—but at least get yourself a calendar and some sticky notes. It makes a big difference!

🫶