Posting PT 1 of Bitter Secrets
I spent the month of June revising PT 1 of Bitter Secrets for my patrons on Patreon. I've never shown anyone raw drafts of my work before. Authors don't do this for good reason, but I decided to do it because:
- I started a Patreon and it's a unique incentive
- I wanted to see the readers reaction to PT 1
Roth and Jasmine's first month together was the same length as Bitter Heat at 88k words and I still had 11 more months to cover. If I wrote this book to the extent that my muse wanted me to, this thing was going to be another Harry Potter length book. I had no idea if anyone would be interested in something of that length. Most romances have a man and woman meet for the first time and married within 60k words so... what the hell am I doing?
I decided to do the unthinkable and show a raw draft to my patrons. Most authors write a "thin" first draft. This means they write as quickly as possible to get the story on the page before they lose hold of their vision/inspiration. It's a barebones draft with no frills. In their second draft, they'll breathe life into the story, and then they'll do a final polish. I used to write like this, but my process has changed. Now, I throw everything into the first draft. Every chapter builds upon the next, so a barebones draft won't do. The foundation has to be rock solid. I spent a ridiculous amount of time on the first half, which is why I felt comfortable sharing it. It was more of a finished draft than what I usually have at this point in my process. In my second draft, I usually strip away and refine, and then I do a final polish.
I thought posting the raw draft would be a breeze. After all, I mentioned many times it was "raw and unedited," which meant it didn't have to be perfect. But, I forgot how messy first drafts are and how long it takes to do rewrites, especially on something this long. PT 1 has 13 chapters, while Bitter Heat has 21. The reason for this is, you're following the characters so closely that there are no breaks in scenes. That means everything needs to be seamless--tone, thought process of the character, and action. Moreover, in chapters this long, you want to make sure there's no lag. Everything has to be in sync. It was a bitch. I thought I would be able to rush ahead and pre-schedule chapters, but I was scrambling until the last day of the month.
Although this was a very nerve-racking experience, I’m glad I did it. Authors usually don't get to see people reacting chapter by chapter, they just hear the summary at the end. I really thought there would be a consensus, that the majority would lean in one direction, but I was wrong. Everyone interpreted the dialogue, actions, and circumstances differently. This experience only reinforced that I should always listen to my muse. She knows what she's doing even though I don't. LOL. I'm happy to say that I'm going to follow through with my original plan and just write the story as I intended, no matter how long it is. Those who enjoy a slow burn and want to know every facet of these characters will get their wish.
Onto PT 2!!