Tyler Hillis

It is finished!

The first draft, at least.

Coming in at 390 pages, 110,000 words, 28 Chapters. The Great Tower City has taken its first complete form.

This, my biggest project to date, took three months of daily writing to complete. I’ve detailed my process in a previous post, but committing to at least a hour a day of focused work proved to be a successful structure for me. I missed only three days over the last three months (Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and a day with the Boys), and so wrote for a total of 89 days averaging a 1,200 word/day pace.

But there is still plenty more work to be done.

First, I am giving myself some time to rest and detach from the story. It’s been an ever-present thought in my head during the time I worked on it and I feel as though I need to give it room to breathe. Let it marinate on the page and muddy in my mind.

This coincides nicely with an upcoming vacation to Europe (Dublin, Rotterdam, Amsterdam). I’ll be gone for ten days and intend to forget as much of the story as I can during that time.

When I return, I will read through its entirety for the first time, with a notebook on hand. It will be hard to not edit the page directly, but I want to first read and take notes of the larger themes and sections that need revision. Of these, I already have a few “planned” revisions that I know I need based on including new information later in the story that I hadn’t referenced earlier. But mostly, I want to get a macro picture of the book and find out where it is lacking.

This will be venturing into more unknown waters, as I could imagine this process taking more time than I initially imagined. I’m sure whole sections will be added, and some even cut. But I’m confident that at least the base foundation of the story is stable enough to now focus on the details.

After those revisions, I will no doubt undergo a few more rounds of edits focusing on copy and grammar. I’ve tried not to worry too much about that stuff while writing so that I could let the creative flow continue on.

And after that? Who knows. Of course I have big ambitions swirling around in my head. But for now, we take it one step at a time.

Here’s to doing something I never quite thought I was capable of. Proving yourself wrong is a great feeling.