Done, d-u-n done

That’s a wrap on The Drop: Season Four. The draft is done, or as I like to say, it’s done - d-u-n, done. I finished the last sentence just a few minutes ago, upending my normal routine and writing first before posting here. I think the draft turned out well and sets up next season nicely. I have some thoughts on a few things to improve, all minor and nothing requiring a major rewrite. The book currently clocks in at 77k words, which might increase slightly. If I decide it needs another chapter for some reason, that will edge the count closer to the 80k mark, but I don’t see that necessity at the moment. How did it turn out compared to when I started writing it? A bit different. I’d planned on making the bulk of the book about two players but decided early on I’d grow weary of that arrangement and so would readers. That’s probably the biggest thing that deviated from my original plan. I surprised myself with a couple of developments along the way and hope they surprise the reader as well. Most of those come from the characters and how they behave and interact with one another. To me, that’s the nice thing about writing without a scripted outline, and no, I’m not knocking that approach. I just feel these books work better when I have an overarching structure and let the characters move about within it. So for now, this book gets to marinate a little bit before I go back for my first round of revisions. I think this calls for a toast.