Draft 3 Is Done!

I am pleased to report that I finished the third draft of my work-in-progress this past weekend. It’s taken me four months to complete this draft. And now I have launched into Draft 4.

There are some things I feel good about at this point in the book—much better than when I started this draft.

• I’ve strengthened the female protagonist, and her development through the novel feels much clearer now.
• I’ve decided the travel section of the book works all right after the modifications I made in Draft 3.
• I am happy with most of the dialogue—I like writing dialogue, and it usually comes easily to me.
• And I reduced the word count to the range of my other published novels (though I am likely to take another few thousands words out as I finish the book).

But there are still issues. Some problems are nits—Character A told Character B she had accepted a marriage proposal at two different points in the book, so my first task in Draft 4 was to delete one of those revelations. Some problems are more significant—there are still pacing problems in the middle of the novel. Draft 4 will require me to smooth out the rough edges in the plot and characters, so that the next (final???) draft can be all about formatting and line editing.

I think the book will need Draft 4 and then one more quick pass before I share it with beta readers. If I sent it to them now, they would pick at me about things I know I need to fix. Better that they tell me things I don’t already know after I have fixed the things I can identify myself.

While I work on Draft 4, I’ll also start on some of the fun parts of publishing historical fiction—the Author’s Note, in which I describe what is real and what is fiction; the book cover; and the back cover text where I try to induce readers to read the novel.

Here is the painting I am going to use for the front cover of this novel:

It is an oil painting called Young Woman Writing a Letter (1874), by Federico Zandomeneghi. My novel takes place in 1872-73, so the timing is right. My character is a newspaper writer, and I imagine the woman depicted in the painting as writing an article, rather than a letter, but otherwise the painting is perfect.

Finishing Draft 3 gave me a sense of accomplishment, and I can see light at the end of the tunnel (finally) on this book, which has been almost two years in the crafting. It is the end of the series, and I want it to be worthy of readers who have made it through the first six historical novels I’ve written.

Do you like to read historical fiction? Why or why not?