Timeline so far...

350,000 words in 17 months

Getting Started

Considering that I've been thinking about this story in some form or other for almost twenty years, I think it's safe to conclude that getting the actual writing part going was hard for me. For a long time, I wasn't happy with the premise and then I was unhappy with the scope. No matter how I looked at it, every idea seemed to be derivative of other work, overly done, or just to ambitious for a first-time writer. Some of these worries were really just excuses, and lame ones at that.

But the itch had grown too big to ignore, I got tired of thinking about sitting down to write and finally, coaxed into motion by my best friend and a YouTuber named Bradon McNulty, I committed to myself to write at least thirty minutes a day. So, in early August, 2023, I sat down and started writing Chosen (not the name I had for the project then). The timeline is set out below:

Chosen Timeline

• August 2023

  • Chapter one starts.

• November 2023

  • Chapter fifteen of the original manuscript begins.

  • I began tracking the story outline more carefully. Up until this point the story had grown organically.

• January 2024

  • It is clear now that the original story is too big for a single book. There are more than 200,000 words and too many pacing & sequencing issues to count. New villains are created as proxy for the main one.

• February 2024

  • Chapter twenty-three, the final chapter of a very rough draft, is completed. It is funny to note that the main antagonist is substituted in the final chapter for new villains that are completely unfamiliar to the reader.

  • The first major edit begins. Thinking back, I would have expected this to be hard to jump into right away, but it wasn't. Two things were very clear, the manuscript so far was not close to ready, and I could now see where I wants to the final story to go.

• November 2024

  • The first major edit is complete. Almost a year in the making, I kept very little of the original work. I also got the idea to add epigraphs to every chapter to set tone and use storytelling for exposition. The end product is 230,000 words, which means that I have written in excess of 350,000 words in 15 months.

  • The project gets a name - Chosen.

  • Querying begins! This is an aggravating process, but the prep work was rewarding. I put together draft query letters, a (rather weak) synopsis and a reasonable pitch statement. I enlisted some friends and family to really shake these out.

  • Querying started with two submissions. One yielded a form-letter denial, the other one went unanswered.

• December 2024

  • Second edit pass begins. The main goal is to get the book down under 200,000 words and tighten up the language.

• January 2024

  • I have updated and improved the query letter and assorted exhibits. There have been eight queries in total. I have decided to submit at a pace of one per week.

  • I completed the second pass. There are 198,000 words now and the story is much more compelling.

That's the timeline so far. I am currently engaged in three key activities:

1. Enlisting readers for my book

2. Querying with caution, care and attention to detail

3. Chosen II