First Readers, second books, waiting

It’s been about a week since I finished my second draft. I keep thinking of things I should have changed before sending it out to my first readers. It’s frustrating, but I’m trying to put a lid on it until I’m ready to start the third draft. I need this story to go to the back of my brain for at least a few weeks!

I’ve sent it out to a total of 12 first readers… a few  more than I intended. I’m really looking forward to hearing from them. A few comments have started trickling in, which has been really exciting for me. They’re very positive, but confused about a few worldbuilding details. For me that has been/is/will continue to be the hardest part of writing a fantasy novel. I want to treat my readers like the smart people they are, but I also don’t want to skimp on the detail! It’s a fine line to walk, and I’m hoping I’ll do it a bit better in the third draft.

It’s hard to wait for my readers responses. I don’t have time right now to even properly look at them, but I want them in my inbox now! I’ve gotten feedback on my short stories from mostly the same group and I trust them to tell me when they’re excited, bored, or confused. I’m immensely looking forward to the day when I can sit down with a cup of tea, sit down with the responses, and figure out how I can make my book better. Throughout the writing process I went back and forth between loving it and hating it, and right now I’m on the loving it end of the spectrum. I love it, it’s good, and I can make it even better.

I’ve begun the outlining process for book 2. It’s fun to think about where I want these characters to go and what characters I want to add. I think that having a complete outline for this before I start on draft 3 of The Cooper Sisters Book 1 will be really helpful.

World building

In the three weeks since I finished my first draft I’ve been doing a lot of world building. Like I’ve mentioned before, my novel started as a NaNoWriMo project. Going in I had two or three ideas about what I wanted to do, and that was it. The world formed as I wrote.

That worked well enough for the first draft, but it isn’t going to cut it for the next one!

Before going back into revising, I want to have a clear idea of what my world is. I’ve been drawing maps, writing out long explanations of religion and politics. I’ve been exploring my characters’ back stories  to the point where I’ve been conducting “interviews” with them! I’ve figured out a lot of the details that tripped me up when I was first writing. Mostly I’ve been thinking a lot about my world, my characters, and my story.

It’s all a lot of fun, and I’m starting to feel really prepared for the revision. I’m getting excited to jump back into it, although I’ll probably wait a few more weeks.

If you’re a writer, how do you do your world building?