/lit/ - Literature

>>22564101

Hello, /wg/! Three quarters of my next-to-last draft is done, boys... I'm so ready for it to be over. It's more than 100,000 words long now so far (barring any further streamlining), and it's taken more than four grueling years to get to this point; I was 24 when I started, now I'm 28. Lots of loneliness and wasted nights in front of a white computer screen, but my obsession compels me to continue. I have to leave something more behind than a few anecdotes and a bullshit dissertation. For once, I'm somewhat proud of something I've done. I've never written a novel before, but I think I found my process:

> paragraph-level outline => set uniform word quota per paragraph (I think 300 words was my first limit lol, definitely not doing this step for future books) => start typing out a hodgepodge of pertinent phrases, words, and ideas that come to mind until each quota is filled (I call it "vomit") => retool paragraph number/length and chapter divisions into a more organic form as they start cohering with each other thematically => start interspersing repeating motifs and themes inside the existing text as I start sensing connections to further bring it all together => introduce more elements into the story as its world becomes fuller => refine the vomit into prose paragraph-by-paragraph => make stylistic edits to the prose to make it sound smoother => hunt for repetitive words/phrases and break them up

Once the next-to-last draft is completely finished, I'll orally narrate the book to myself chapter-by-chapter and clean up the overly-purple parts, then it should be done. I'd also like to put in some nice maps when I typeset the first edition, commissioning cover art and marketing will probably be challenging the first time around. I don't know if Kid Demiurge will ever gain a large readership, I figure the second book in the trilogy will be much more accessible to readers than this one (this process has helped me write a SHITTON of notes that will make the series much richer than I first anticipated).

Anyway, here's the first four chapters I shared with you guys several years back, much improved:

https://docdro.id/6Q4XHRa

tl;dr
As always, I do it for you faggots as much as myself, even if you despise me. Enjoy my spergy screed, thanks for the love and the hate and the valuable feedback you've given me (the more the merrier, hit me up if you want)