Hatching GLAMOUR

I guess it sorta snuck up on me, but I ‘finished’ the initial draft of GLAMOUR this week.  I don’t like to call it a first draft yet, because as the story evolved and changed in the later chapters, I didn’t go back and fix the beginning. A lot of character names changed between the beginning and the end; family histories were altered and the US Constitution was rewritten (twice!), but I know what I need to do.  I’ve got some additional research to follow up on (is there anybody out there who is an expert on Velcro?) and I’m still not happy with my protagonist’s name, but I haven’t given up on finding something better.  At any rate, I’ve reached the end of writing this ‘pre-draft’. 
At this point, the basic story is all there in 46 chapters.  I expect 2 or possibly 3 more scenes may need to be added.  This newly-hatched version was written quickly (85,000 words in 78 days) with little effort to put into setting, mood, or much in the way of characterization.  I’m going to take a few days to set it up on Scrivener (I just got the new version for PCs a couple of weeks ago) and then start going through the revision process to bring it closer to early-reader ready. 
Right now, I’m most worried about getting the story world right and concerned about the number of characters.  I’ve been reading several agents blogs and tweets about books with too many characters and plot twists.  But I like lots of characters and multiple subplots; and my heroes, George R. R. Martin and Naomi Novik have lots and lots of characters and twists in their work, so I think that as long as the query letter and pitch (that’s right, I’m going to be working on those as well) focus on the protagonist’s main goal, conflict, and stakes, I’m not going to stress about it at this stage.  It’s newly hatched and ugly still, but GLAMOUR has arrived!
This entry was posted in developing plot, early draft, Glamour, interesting characters, manuscript, story, twists, urban fantasy. Bookmark the permalink.

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