Update on my 10th novel, The Marionette

Writing life: 65

It’s been more than five months since my last formal update on the state of my tenth novel, The Marionette. So, I figure it’s time to catch you up.

No, this isn’t the cover design for the novel,. This is just my rudimentary mock-up, placeholder cover to add some colour to this post.

April 30th: Finished my scene-by-scene outline

In that last update back in early March, I reported that I was in the middle of developing my scene-by-scene outline. After about five months of work on it, I wrapped up my outline at the end of April. (As usual, it took me longer to map out the story and outline the novel than it did to write my first pass at the manuscript. That may sound odd, but that’s how my heavily-planned writing process seems to work.)

The first page of my 84 page outline.

In case some find this sort of thing interesting, my scene-by-scene bullet point outline for this novel ran to 84 pages and just more than 32,000 words. It is very detailed and featured—more than in any of my previous novel outlines—sample dialogue I could lean on when drafting the actual manuscript. My comprehensive outline, and my intimate knowledge of the entire story, front-to-back, side-to-side, and top-to-bottom, is what enables me to write the manuscript efficiently and quickly. In short, knowing the story as well as I do gives me with the confidence I need to tackle the manuscript.

May 3rd-July 3rd: Wrote the manuscript

I started writing Chapter 1 of the manuscript on May 3rd and finished my first draft of the manuscript two months later on July 3rd. (My first editor, Doug Gibson suggested that because my first draft is based on such a detailed scene-by-scene outline that takes me months and months to develop, it is likely the equivalent of a third or fourth draft for writers who don’t outline as extensively.)

I enjoyed writing the manuscript and found that my outline held together quite well. I made a few changes as I wrote the words that I hope bring this story to life. I think my modest refinements softened some rough edges and sharp corners to make the story flow more smoothly. This often happens to me when writing the manuscript.

My first draft clocked in at 73,857 words, a little shorter than my other novels at this stage. But I wasn’t too concerned about this. I knew from the experience of writing nine earlier novels, that my first, second, and third edit/polish passes through the manuscript almost always add words to the final count.

The standard Word Count doc I concocted and use when writing my novels.

I always keep a Word Count document for each novel. It’s a place where I can track my progress. It’s also a psychological aid I use to keep me motivated as I watch the Chapters and word counts pile up in the table.

Three more edit/polish passes through the manuscript

As you can see from my Word Count document above, I let the first draft of the manuscript sit for a week or two before starting through it all again. In my first, what I call my, “edit/polish” pass through the manuscript, I found many little mistakes I needed to fix, including some continuity issues. It’s much easier to spot problems when you read the entire manuscript in a short period of time. I completed my first edit/polish pass in about four days. The changes I made added more than 3,000 new words to the manuscript.

Then I let the manuscript sit for a week before digging in again for my second edit/polish pass. More issues—though minor ones—revealed themselves and I continued to refine the manuscript. I finished my second edit/polish pass on August 3, adding another nearly 1,700 words.

After another week’s pause, I made my third edit/polish read through the ms, still finding a few issues to resolve. I finished my third pass on August 15 adding still another 1,400 words.

In the end, the novel grew from 73, 857 words to 80,144 words courtesy of my three edit/polish passes through the manuscript.

To be clear, if I’d made a fourth pass, I suspect I’d have found more things I wanted to adjust. That’s just the nature of the process. But I was on deadline.

Off to my editor

On August 16th, I sent the manuscript off to my editor at McClelland & Stewart/Penguin Random House, Joe Lee. So for the time-being, The Marionette is out of my hands. I suspect I’ll hear from Joe towards the end of September. He’ll likely start with an editorial note giving me his broad, high-level reaction to the story. This will likely include what he likes, what may need a little more work, and some general suggestions to improve the story.

I’ll then review the manuscript again with Joe’s editorial thoughts in mind, making changes, additions, and subtractions, before sending him back a fifth draft (my initial draft, plus my first three edit/polish drafts).

Then Joe will do a more formal edit that will likely take us into the new year. I’ll then go through his edits, line-by-line, likely approving 95% of them or more—editors always make my novels better. I’m getting ahead of myself now, but after that, there’s still copyediting to do as well as proofreading—not to mention cover design and cover copy development. But there’s plenty of time to share more about those stages later.

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So, there you have it. I’m on track with The Marionette, unless my editor feels differently when he reads the manuscript. If all goes well, my tenth novel should be published in the late summer of 2025. I’ll keep you posted as more thresholds are crossed.

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Wrapping up…

Now that The Marionette is out of my hands and into my editor’s, at least for a period of weeks, I’m turning my mind to my 11th novel. The story is nearly fully formed and I have pages and pages of notes. So I’ll now be starting my scene-by-scene outline and will work on it until my editor reports back on The Marionette. Then we’ll spend the next several months editing. I’ll keep you informed on progress made on both novels.