If you’ve read some of my previous posts, you’ll be able to guess that I have written at least two novels. Both unpublished. The Vault was a novel that I wrote and I posted the first chapter of Part 3 a few weeks ago. I was going to continue to post more of this novel going forward. Instead of picking up from part 3, I am going to start over from scratch.

This novel was written in the month of November in 2020. It was for National Novel Writing Month. It was this first time I actually completed writing a novel for that challenge. I loved the challenge. You couldn’t make too many excuses. You had to crank the words out regardless how you felt about them.

The idea of the challenge is that you would then take December off and start editing in January. I entered this process thinking that I could just tweak what I had already written. Apparently, that’s not what the curators over at NaNoWriMo had in mind. No, they want you to go through your novel and take notes of what worked and what didn’t. Then you are supposed to scrap the whole thing and go for a blind second draft.

The idea of this process is that you would get better at writing the draft after several iterations. At some point, you might even end up with a publishable piece. Any writing advice online suggests not to try and publish your first draft. I get it. That’s a lesson you learn in grade school. However, once you write a novel, the thought of turning around and writing it again is daunting.

I did not pursue this. Instead, I meandered and made excuses. I did post the first two parts on this website before it became Chophouse Press. I wanted to garner some feedback. I didn’t get anything critical. That left me in a rut. So, The Vault sat on the shelf of my mind for awhile. But the time has come to dust it off and go through the second draft process.

My goal is to go through the whole process again. Blind as a bat, with whatever memory I have of the first go. Eventually, we will make it all the way to the end, for better or worse. I do want to remind you that this is just a second draft. There will be a lot of bad writing and some good. It won’t be edited that much. I will do some cursory editing, but other than that, it will be the raw material.

We’ll see how this process goes. Some chapters may just end up being outlines or place holders. It’s hard to write a novel and keep the consistency going. Sometimes you just get stuck and write something that makes no sense later. But you write anyway. That’s the deal.

There will probably be some interlude posts in-between. Once you start writing, the ideas for a lot of other things seem to flow too. I haven’t decided how strict I will be on myself. Some would say to buckle down and draft one piece. Others would say that a break is good for the brain every once and awhile. We’ll see how it goes.

We’ll start that next week. For those who missed the first go around, here’s a little back cover description:

Detective Alec Bannerman arrives on the scene to investigate the death of a nurse killed by what appears to be a run of the mill drug addict. His search leads him to a trail of bodies that start to defy explanation. The remains are torn apart as if by an animal. However, no known animal on file causes this kind of damage. It’s malicious and hints at ravenous feeding. As Alec deepens his investigation, he finds secrets that the city has been trying to hide. Secrets that will not only change his life but could alter the very course of reality.

Hopefully that intrigues some of you. I have a hard time with these quick descriptions. I need to polish them up if I am ever going to sell a novel. One day.