It's probably fairly common knowledge that the vast majority of software development projects take much more time, more effort, and more money than planned. There was a time where the majority of development projects got cancelled before they delivered a working product.

Software project managers had a standing joke:

That line captures my feelings for working on this novel. Just as it seems like I'm in the home stretch, the goalposts move (usually I'm the one moving them, which probably makes things worse.)

Here's how I have moved them this year (so far):

In January, I decided to print a physical copy of the manuscript as it stands, where I'm ready to write the final scenes. Because I've added so much this round, I wanted to get a feel for the overall story that I was having a hard time getting by working on the computer. I thought I could give it a read-through and go back to wrap the first draft up.

Wrong. Of course I had to edit it. Nothing really big, but more than just the occasional word change. Mostly rearranging sentences, fixing unexplained scene changes, something about a character that was missing. Anything big went into a note for the next draft. I've got many notes like that, they can wait until the first draft is done. I actually enjoyed the process and I managed to get through it in the two weeks I'd allocated. Extra bonus since that's the first job I've managed to get done on schedule since I started this thing. Now I just need a week to get the edits in, a print a fresh copy without any of the notes, get a clean read-through and the finish line is close, right?

Wrong again. Two more weeks later (not solidly mind you, life has thrown up its share of diversions this past few weeks) and I'm only a third of the way through "entering" those edits. Some of them are easy: typos, capitalization, easy fixes in seconds. Some take a few minutes, and some take more time.

Those of you who have been following the "No Hook" podcast that I've been recording every other week with Michael Pinkus know that my initial target for finishing the draft was December 31. It was also obviously unrealistic, but it made sense to set a target just to have something to work towards, and it did help to keep me focused. That target moved to January 31 and I figured I'd make it, but here we are in February already, and that's why I have that "working on the second 90%" feeling.

The analogy with software projects is perhaps a little too close to home. I take heart in knowing that while lots of projects I worked on took more effort than planned, they all delivered a working product. I'm confident that this novel is going to go the same way (and then again with publishing, marketing, etc. but those are separate projects.) I just really wish I could nail down when that was going to happen, instead of pushing targets out again and again.

The good news is that overall, I'm happy with the manuscript. This pass raised only one structural question, and it's relatively minor (basically, should I change the order of a few chapters or not.) It has also reduced the work required for the second draft, allowing me to better focus on raising the quality of the prose, rather than on major fixes.

And now, back to editing.

But Wait, There's More

Michael and I have just finished recording Review #10 for our podcast. After a quick edit it should be up on the channel later today. Its a wide-ranging conversation and there's only one really bad joke in this episode.

What I've Been Reading

My manuscript and weather reports, mostly. This winter has been brutal. My TBR pile is growing far too quickly.

Thanks!

Thanks for reading all the way down to this point. You're a champ. You can send me a note with feedback by hitting reply.

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