February 2021 - Update

Winter Wonderland?

Highlights for February:

• The Blighter’s Shadow’s first draft is coming along quite well. Each day brings more to the story. I have completed nearly 120,000 words of the first draft. The first draft is slated for around 200,000. Of course, several thousand words will be shaved off the 200,000-word draft, which I always think of as shaving off the rough edges. There will be 5-8 drafts depending on how much needs to be edited. Editing is one of my favorite parts of the process simply because the work shines afterward. 
  • The average length of many modern novels is around 50,000 words. Epic fantasy, which is the genre The Rune Cycle trilogy falls into, is almost always longer. This trilogy will likely contain my longest books.
• 2021’s workload continues to be on a good pace. Finishing Book 2 is my primary goal, and then I’ll focus on a shorter science fiction novel later this year, as I work on the editing process for The Blighter’s Shadow. I estimate that it’ll take 3 months to get the edits completed. 
• Book 3 -The Originators of Sa’un - will eventually close out the trilogy, but that’ll not be finished until the end of 2022.

Inspirations:
Other authors and artists are inspirations to me. The local writer’s group, which is filled with a wide variety of excellent authors, help me craft a story to completion. We now meet nearly every week to help each other, either by critiquing each other’s work or doing writing sprints, which is just getting down as many words as possible. Of course, I try to help them, too, by offering my own thoughts on their works in progress.
Word count is a massive part of the writing process. The number of words you are striving toward helps you gauge your progress. For example, if you are drafting a 50,000-word novel and you write approximately 1,000 words per day, then you’ll have that first draft done in under 2 months. Some authors can publish numerous books per year simply by paying close attention to their word count. And just writing as often as possible. 😊 I know I’ve found keeping track of my word count to be one of the most useful tools.
Realistically, without the advice, suggestions, and edits offered by other authors and editors, I would have never finished even my first novel. Each novel, short story, novella, monograph, or even flash fiction can (and should) involve many people who assist in making each piece as good as possible. Of course, the definition of what is “good” is up to the reader, which leads into another inspiration for another update: critiques and reviews.
Click here for more information about the group I participate in. The site is constantly evolving based on what each author has accomplished. Check back frequently for updates.

Please be sure to check out my website for continuous updates on my progress. Some of the updates are below:

• I continue adding a few short book and/or movie reviews. I finished several books in the last month. You can find my thoughts here here.
• I finished Kim Stanley Robinson’s Ministry of the Future and Start with Why by Simon Sinek, but I am still working on Barack Obama’s The Promised Land. I also delved into one of the Witcher novels. Once I finish those, I’ll be delving into some of fellow writer’s group novels. I can’t wait!

If you have questions for future newsletters/updates, please be sure to send them to [email protected]. There are numerous media links for your convenience: on Twitter at @brigmanauthor, on Facebook at Dan Brigman, Author, or on my website, www.danbrigman.com.
Thanks again for your support! Besides taking the time to read my updates, please visit the following links to create a review of The Alterator’s Light, The Point of Woes, or The Tower of Dread if you’ve read those stories.
Reviews are quick to create! They offer potential readers insight into what you thought about the book. They also help get the word out about the stories and the author. You can simply search for the title of each of my books on Goodreads and/or Amazon or follow the links below.