Progress on Killer Eyes

On chapter four, page 33, and near 9,000 words. Man, I tell you, once you are inspired, let it flow. I figure to write 25 pages a week, and that means by the end of the summer vacation, I should have the first draft completed. That's how I did it with my first two books, Killer of Killers and The Vase.

Then I used the next nine months to revise each one. However, KOK took me, really, another year to revise, because, as I explained in an earlier post, it was my first novel.

But now, my third novel is going so well I doubt the revising effort will be as intense as either of the first two. I have a nifty ending already in mind. Not like for the first Killer book. I wrote that one without even knowing what was going to happen. It all fell into place as I wrote it, though...almost as if the story wrote itself. But I have read blogs where authors claim to outline their entire book before they write it, and then there are some who claim they don't.

Well, for KOK, I didn't outline, and it really turned out great. At least that's what everyone said who read it. Including literary agents, one of whom signed me to a contract. Fingers crossed. Hope she can sell it.

Then, for The Vase, I outlined it. I had a great idea, and went about writing the first draft following the outline pretty closely. It seemed a lot different knowing the events before I got to them.

Both ways are good, but I would recommend outlining. It's like reading a map that has a distinct route that you are following. Otherwise, with no outline, it's like you get in your car and you start driving without even knowing where the heck you're going. With KOK, I ended up in a good place, but man, I wouldn't suggest it. You might get lucky once or twice even, but don't push your luck. That's my advice, anyway.

Of course, even with an outline, during the course of writing the novel, you get new ideas, and the story can twist and change. That happened to a degree with The Vase, and it will probably happen with Killer Eyes. But that's why you write the book, no? It could always take an unexpected turn, and there you are...with an even greater story than you figured. That's why writing novels is such a great thing to do. Man, I,m having the time of my life. But that's what I thought when I wrote music, and when I did my art.

It's what I thought when I had kids, too. Yeah, I had a happy Father's Day. I love my two sons so much. I am one lucky dad.