I’m calling my first draft of my novel, Lord of All Fools done.

That’s right; I’m bravely declaring that the work is– as far as plot elements are concerned– finito.

Now for the rewrite.

See, what actually happened is that I realized that the book was going to be ginormous if I kept up with the plot I’d sketched out.  And I kept stumbling across things that I wished I’d fleshed out in earlier chapters.  Things like the system of magic, the world– eensy, teensy things, in a work of fantastical fiction.  🙂

I had a ready made climax at the half-way point in the book; and the more I thought about going back and explicating, the more I liked the idea.  I decided to revise, and add (since my scalpel work is fairly clumsy).  I also made the conscious decision to do a formal outline this time, and keep better notes of what the world is meant to be.  I’ve been working on the outline for about a week now, and it’s been really fun.  I’m surprised– planning and plotting has never been one of my strong points.

So, the plan for the book is as follows:

The Lord of All Fools will be finished and ready for submission mid-February.  I’m going to ramp up production on the sequel, The Boneyard King, to have it done in a year.  The final, The Queen of Ashtown, will be finished a year after that.  I know, generally, all the Big Events that will happen in each of the three books.

I feel great about the division of the books; I really, really like the idea of taking more time with LOAF to establish the world more solidly.