I’ve been working on this novel for a long time, but I keep needing to put it down. This week I read my current draft (40k) looking for the things I need to finish it.

A friend and I swap recommendations, because we each need to do that. I found a new speed-reading app and she found a read-aloud app, so we’re both playing with these. It’s exciting, because I’m not always good at reading my work out loud, but I listen when it plays. I also can catch the big gaps in my story when I speed-read and see, oh, right, that’s a big gap.

Usually I try to write in order, but I got ahead of myself. It’s understandable because this rewrite was much different than others – I have a highlighted and commented copy by my side to make it both easier and harder. Easier, because I know what this book looks like instead of the last draft (which had a combined book 1 and 2 feel to it), and harder, because sometimes elements of both books are very much entangled together.

It feels like the downhill stretch. Exciting to know what I need to finish and have a plan for how to do that. I’ll probably need to read it aloud, too, so I know I finished this draft. Maybe by month’s end!