I’m happy to share that I FINISHED WRITING THE ROUGH DRAFT of my gritty sci-fi adventure novel last night!

Clocking in at 175,000 words and exactly 700 pages, my sketchbook ideas are now fully fleshed-out characters, creatures, and technologies that make up a single, cohesive story.

Is it perfect? YES!

Just kidding. Among other things, there are two entire chapters I’ll be throwing out (though there’s a chance they are their own novel-length story), large chunks of sloppy writing to rework, and there are some major continuity errors I’ll have to address—but at least it’s all on the page, ready to be improved.

It’s been an incredible challenge for me to ignore my inner editor and change what I wrote yesterday instead of adding to the story today. It’s also been difficult to make notes on ideas for other projects without actively pursuing them. There were long weeks when I didn’t hit my daily word count goals, but other weeks when I was able to triple and quadruple my desired word count. It’s been a unique experience, focusing on words instead of pictures. I learned a lot about what works better for me and what kinds of constraints and obstacles I struggle with.

I’ve kept a few encouraging statements in mind while I’ve worked.

“I’m writing a first draft and reminding myself that I’m simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles.” (Shannon Hale)

“Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.” (F Scott Fitzgerald)

“Aim at something you will in fact do. Do it. Then, having succeeded, aim a bit higher.” (Jordan B Peterson)

Of course, I still have a long way to go. I have other projects I’ll be focusing on for the next few months, then I’ll start into revising this novel. Once I’ve been able to polish the book enough, I’ll make the story available to members of the First Readers Club (who have already read 2 of my books before they’ve been published).

I’m sure I’ll post about the story here and there, but definitely sign up for the First Readers Club if you have any interest in reading the story before it’s published. I have some fun things planned going forward and I’d love to keep you involved.

Major thanks to my wife and family for allowing me time to write, and to Bonnie, Alicia, Caroline, and the lovely Writing Group I failed to keep going.

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If you’re interesting in learning how to write and draw your own comics, check out my book Let’s Make Comics! An Activity Book to Create, Write, and Draw Your Own Cartoons.

A light-hearted interactive guide to comics and cartoon-making that uses an activity book format and creatively stimulating prompts to teach the fundamentals of cartooning in a fun and easy-to-follow fashion.

From a working cartoonist and comic book making instructor, this all-ages activity book uses humorous and informative one-page comics and exercise prompts to guide young readers (and readers who are young at heart) through easy-to-master lessons on the skills needed to make comics. The activities cover a range of essential comics-making tasks from creating expressions for characters to filling in blank panels to creating original characters and placing them in adventures of their own. Each exercise can stand on its own or work together with others in the book to stimulate creativity via the comics medium. In the end, readers who complete the activities inside the book itself will have created several comics of their own, and will have generated many ideas for more sequential art creations.

If you’d like to read my next graphic novel for FREE and before it’s published, sign up for my First Readers Club here.