Second Book- Complete!

Thirty-six chapters and 42,245 words later, I have finally finished my second book. It is a YA mystery, inspired by one of the short stories in the short story collection (book number one) that I wrote earlier this year. I have been writing since April and it feels really good to reach this milestone.

I started writing book number one in February as a way of getting myself back into writing, and short stories definitely eased me in until, very quickly, it became a collection. As I am trying to challenge myself this year and do all the things I have been putting off/ been afraid to do, I sent it to a few agents but to no avail. There isn’t really a market for YA gothic short stories.

Instead of giving up, and also not wanting the concepts and characters from my collection to go to waste, I decided to start turning them into longer stories with more nuanced plots- hence the birth of book number two.

I am really proud of getting it done, but I know there is still a lot of work to do. I haven’t edited or really proofread it yet, and with 42, 245 words, I imagine that is going to take me a really long time. And, I would also like to have some verdicts of the finished thing from some readers before I start the terrifying process of emailing agents.

But for now, I can kick back and say- “I have finished my second book of 2020!”