It’s hard to believe it has only been a week since I announced I was starting Chet zero. After the struggle I’ve had with writing for the first two weeks of this new year, I figured it was going to take some serious time to complete even a novella length story. In spite of my low expectations, I’m delighted to let you know that I’ve completed the manuscript for the Chet prequel.
I was writing along yesterday afternoon when I reached the end of a chapter and suddenly realized I’d finished telling the story. There were some other tidbits that I’d outlined, but given the way the story evolved they felt superfluous. Not willing to trust my judgment, especially when avoiding work is part of the consideration, I gave the story to my wife to read. She buried her head in the computer while I went off to do some manual labor to keep myself from pacing back and forth behind her chair while she read.
During one of the times I cautiously poked my head into the office, she sighed, smiled, and told me it was a good little story. With my sweetheart’s stamp of approval, the manuscript is officially off to cool its heels for a few weeks.
By way of explanation, I learned my production process from a much younger and more mentally agile author. He assured me a manuscript needs to set for a few weeks so I’ll be able to forget enough that I’m seeing it fresh when I do my initial editing pass. I just didn’t have the heart to tell my son that all it takes is one night and I’ve forgotten pretty much everything. Since I’m all about keeping up pretenses, I’ll dutifully wait for the next three weeks or so and then I’ll do my initial editing pass. If everything goes as well as I hope, I’ll release Chet zero in close proximity to the release of Chet III.
Until next time …