So. It's been a little while since I first decided to join Wattpad and see this place for myself. Five years ago, way back in 2017, putting a first draft of The Dragon Chase out onto the platform just to see how it did.
And I'm glad I did it.
At the time, I was not ready to publish. Not that I really understood that at the time, because I'm conceited. And The Dragon Chase is awesome as first stories go. But joining Wattpad allowed me to do a fair number of things I'd never really get the chance to do otherwise, all of which have definitely improved my skills, and made me more aware of what it takes to get a good book written.
About six months after I first posted The Dragon Chase, the staff at Wattpad decided to take a risk and promote it. About half a year after that, they asked me if I'd like to help pioneer their Paid Stories program. And I also spent some years writing short stories, mostly in science fiction, using prompts from the official SciFi account in their competitions (Which included the SciFi Smackdown competition, one of my favourite events that this site's ever had).
I also got to know a group of other writers in the Paid Stories program that enriched my life. They're a good batch of people, and deserve whatever money you happen to throw their way by jumping those paywalls.
And finally, most importantly, joining Wattpad introduced me to all of you. The folks who happily read these stories, comment when you feel comfortable, and slog through me trying to make myself into a decent writer. And you do it for nothing more than the entertainment value of the story itself. Believe me when I say I'm grateful.
Because I suffer from an excess of conceit, my stories tend to be somewhat more ambitious than wisdom would recommend. (I popped onto a site whose target audience tends to be teenaged romance with a 100k word semi-steampunk war epic. Looking back on that, I'm astonished anyone read it). I have a fantasy epic series that I'm writing backwards because I haven't fully fleshed out the history to the point where I've decided on a place I want to start, a hard-SciFi version of Treasure Planet, and one about a quadrillionaire bad boy werewolf. It's almost like I was looking to fail and then blame the audience for being unappreciative and unambiguous. In a lot of ways, it's only because you, dear reader, didn't let it fail that I can keep humble.
But the thing is, I think I'm ready to take a work and pound it into a product good enough for the competition of the markets. So I'm starting with this one, in part because it's narratively the easiest one I have to work with. My plan is to fuss with it for as long as it takes, mulling over everything from theme to the tiniest details, and then put it in the right market for its success.
Will I try for a publisher? A big publisher, or push for something more 'Canadian', hoping to get a boost that way? Self-publish? Just Amazon, or every place I can at once? Or take the finished product and beg Wattpad to take me back?
Well, asides from that last one, I'm not sure yet. There's a lot to think about, and I'd like to focus on one thing at a time. Multi-tasking is a sure way to do every task wrong.
So I've done a little bit of research, and I'll start by giving Beyond the Endless Sky a good, thorough edit (or several. Or a dozen, depending on how you use the word 'edit')
Here's the plan:
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I'm going to start with what tends to be called a structural edit. I'm going to start with the big topics first, and work my way down. Spelling/grammar is probably going to be the last one I do. I'll start by working through the story's themes until I'm happy, then world, characters, plot, and pacing.
I thought I'd put the process out here. Some of you fellow writers might learn something, or get to laugh at me for blundering through this, and others might just be interested to see an example of how things are made. (Hopefully this isn't like seeing how sausage is made, and puts you off writing forever)
Feel free to comment, especially if you've read Beyond the Endless Sky already. A long time ago, I put it in 'Coping' that the only correct response to thoughtful criticism is 'thank you', and I mean it now just as much as I did then.
And, let me save the most important bit for last,
Thank you. I doubt I'd have kept with this hiding away by myself. And the stories definitely wouldn't be as good.
