New Book Announcement: Deadwood Burning
On December 8, 2024, I finished writing my third book!
If you follow me on Instagram you’ve probably heard a bit about Project Sand. After weeks and weeks of long nights and busy weekends, it is officially complete at 120k words!
Now, I’m thrilled to announce the official title: Deadwood Burning.
Deadwood Burning is book #2.5 in the Lone Player trilogy. It’s a prequel novel about Aaron’s backstory as an Unseen smuggler, and it’ll be published by Lost Island Press next year.
In this blog, I’m covering everything that went on behind the scenes while writing Deadwood Burning. I’ll share my drafting process, what I struggled with, and what I learned along the way. Let’s get into it!
What Is Deadwood Burning?
Deadwood Burning is a prequel novel that takes place before the events of Lone Player. However, you will likely need the context of the first two books to understand what’s going on in DB. So, we are calling Deadwood Burning Book #2.5.
To get the most out of DB, I highly recommend reading it between Cut Deck and Book 3.
Below is the recommended reading order for the Lone Player trilogy:
Lone Player - #1
Cut Deck - #2
Deadwood Burning - #2.5
Title TBA - #3
While you can enjoy Book 3 without reading Deadwood Burning, it does provide some important context about Aaron’s character and backstory. It also introduces some characters, themes, and world-building that will be relevant in Book 3.
What is Deadwood Burning About?
Deadwood Burning is about Aaron’s backstory before the events of Lone Player. When he is seventeen, he volunteers for a dangerous Unseen mission that goes very wrong. The book is told from his perspective and features a few characters who are introduced in Cut Deck. It also introduces some characters who will be relevant in Book 3.
I won’t be diving too deep into the details of what the mission is (since I view it as a spoiler for Cut Deck), but below is a brief overview of what you can expect from the book.
Note: The official blurb hasn’t been announced yet.
deadwood Burning Unofficial Synopsis
Aaron would trade anything to become someone else.
Life at the Cut is a cage he dreams of escaping. His father wants him to take over his position as healer, but he’s seventeen and restless, and the idea of confining himself to one place or purpose makes him want to break something—or steal a goat from the city he’s forbidden from visiting.
Eager to prove himself and earn independence, he volunteers for a dangerous mission that could change everything for the Unseen.
He fails—and it nearly costs him everything.
Deadwood Burning Progress Report
One thing I get asked a lot is how I track my writing progress while drafting, and how many words I write a day on average. If you’re curious about the numbers involved, I’ll break it down in this section.
Of course, my daily word count varies greatly. I have a full time job, I live with my family, and I’m chronically ill, so I’m busy and sometimes I don’t have the time or energy to write as much as I’d like. Usually, I’d say any day where I write at least 1000 words is a good day for me.
Once I hit about 40k words in the first draft of Deadwood Burning, I decided to start tracking my progress using Google Sheets. I made a very basic spreadsheet that tracked:
Dates
Total word count after each day
Words written each day
Total words
Words left to write
My total word count goal
Actual days I spent writing (note, this is inaccurate in the screenshot because I had to delete some data to account for separating the outline from my actual draft)
Average daily word count
Percentage complete
All of this data was super helpful for planning out my time. In the future I will probably have a notes section where I can leave comments about how my writing sessions went so I can keep track of what factors might influence my productivity. I may also add a column to track where I wrote.
deadwood Burning Statistics
Below are some statistics for the first draft of Deadwood Burning:
Total word count: As I mentioned above, DB is 120k words long. That may change during the editing process.
Average daily word count: 1600 words. This is with a full time job and writing mostly before work or on weekends.
Highest daily word count: On my last day of drafting, I wrote 10,873 words. I actually don’t recommend this; writing that much in one day is really exhausting and makes my work sloppier, but I wanted to finish in time for my deadline (which I set myself…lol).
5 Lessons I Learned While Writing my Third Book
Writing Deadwood Burning was a major learning experience for me. Below are some of the lessons I’ve gathered from writing this book.
1. Outline Your Books and Stay Organized
Every author thinks differently, so writing advice is never a one-size-fits-all solution. It’s important that you experiment with different things and find what works for you.
I know that many writers feel constrained by outlines and prefer free-writing, or making things up as you go. However, I strongly recommend having at least some sort of plan before diving into the drafting process.
I free-wrote the very first draft of Lone Player. I had a basic understanding of the beginning, middle, and end, but the first draft was a lot more intuitive and my notes were hardly substantial enough to be called an “outline.” The idea of having an outline stressed me out and I assumed I would always write my books without one.
By the time I started writing my second book, Cut Deck, I realized I actually thrive when I have an outline. But even then, my “outline” was a messy document titled “Scenes to Organize” from which I copied and pasted scenes, quotes, and notes into my draft. It was more streamlined than my process with Lone Player but still not as organized as it could have been.
With Deadwood Burning, Google Docs came out with an update that included “Document Tabs,” which was a game changer for me. With Tabs, you can essentially split up one document into multiple sections with separate word counts.
This meant that I could have my draft, my outline, my “Scenes to Organize” list, research, and world-building notes all on the same document—without impacting the word count of my draft.
Deadwood Burning was the first book I wrote using document Tabs, and I’m a huge fan! I was able to be much more organized throughout the writing process and construct an actual outline.
Organizing all my thoughts into an outline—even if it was just a messy list of scene ideas in chronological order—took a huge weight off my chest. Even as my (self-imposed) deadline grew nearer and my anxiety heightened because I was worried about not finishing in time, it was comforting to have a clear picture of the beginning, middle, and end. I knew exactly where the book was going and what I had to do to get it done, which allowed me to schedule writing time much more efficiently.
I also felt like this draft was much neater overall in comparison to my previous first drafts for Lone Player and Cut Deck…which we don’t talk about :)
Anyway. If it floats your boat, thorough outlines can reduce stress throughout the drafting process, give you structure, and help you manage your time a lot more efficiently.
2. Track Your Writing Progress
Tracking your writing process can be very helpful for balancing your schedule.
I work a full time job in digital marketing, which takes up most of my day. This means I need to work extra hard to find a balance between work, writing my books, and my personal life.
With Deadwood Burning, I used a spreadsheet to track my daily word count (which I talked about above). This allowed me to calculate my average daily word count, which was really helpful because it gave me a clear idea of how much I can reasonably write in a day before getting burnt out. Using this data, I created a realistic writing schedule to help me finish the book in time.
Also, seeing how much progress you’ve made is really rewarding and motivating! It’s a great reminder that although the work is hard and the days are long—and sometimes it feels like you’re not making a dent—every single word you write is progress made.
3. Write By Hand More Often
One of my favorite writing tips of all time is to write by hand whenever you can.
A change of pace can work wonders when you’re stuck and don’t know where to go. I’ve found that writing by hand forces me to be more mindful about my word choice and discourages going back and editing. But at the same time, it also helps me loosen up and write more freely. It’s much easier to “get in the zone” when I’m writing by hand versus typing on a laptop.
Plus, when I’m using pen and ink, my focus is so much better. When I’m typing on my laptop or phone, it’s really easy to get distracted. But when I’m writing by hand, opening my laptop to indulge in my distractions (usually Instagram or the internet) requires extra steps that I’m usually able to talk myself out of taking.
4. Feeling Stuck? Write With a Pink Marker
Expanding on my previous tip: if you’re feeling stuck, write with a pink marker.
Sometimes writing by hand isn’t enough to get me out of a funk. So, whenever that’s the case, I like writing using something really weird that I won’t normally use—like a crayon, or a hot pink Crayola marker.
This tip was a lifesaver for me while writing Deadwood Burning. I eventually started using a different ink color for every chapter I wrote by hand, just to make sure I never got bored of one writing utensil. This really helped me maintain steady progress.
Also, when writing with a “pink marker,” I take myself way less seriously. As you can see in the image above, the page is filled with scribbles and sloppy handwriting. Since I wasn’t caring about how anything looked on the page, I wrote so much faster and with less restraint.
I know it sounds silly, but give it a try! This worked really well for me.
5. Be Honest With Yourself
The last major lesson I learned from writing the first draft of Deadwood Burning is how important it is to be honest with yourself.
What I mean by this is:
Don’t neglect your needs. Sure, you could work an extra hour instead of going to sleep at a reasonable time, but you’ll spend the next day feeling groggy, sick, and burnt out.
Set reasonable goals. Don’t push yourself to tackle higher daily word counts than you can reasonably manage without getting burned out. Calling myself out here…I tend to set strict book deadlines for myself, and then when I can’t meet them and need an extension, I feel stressed and flakey. If you need more time, you need more time—don’t be hard on yourself!
Dedicate time to rest. If you push yourself to write and write and write without breaks or taking care of yourself, the burn out will be so much more intense and even harder to bounce back from. Resting is productive. If you need a break, you need a break!
What’s Next?
Now that I’ve finished the first draft of Deadwood Burning, here’s a brief overview of what’s coming next!
Beta reading: Deadwood Burning will be beta-read by a test audience of volunteer readers. Their much-appreciated feedback will be used to guide the next draft!
Editing DB: Once beta reading is done, we’ll begin the editing process for Deadwood Burning to get it in shape for publication.
Book 3 Draft 1: I’m currently working on the first draft of Book 3 in the Lone Player trilogy! It’s a very bittersweet experience for me—excited to be done, but sad to say goodbye to these characters.
Sinker Draft 1: Once Deadwood Burning and Book 3 are complete, I'll finish the first draft of Sinker! We’re currently at about 90k words.
My Upcoming Publishing Schedule
Release dates have yet to be announced, but below is an overview of my upcoming publishing schedule:
Deadwood Burning (2025, Lost Island Press)
Lone Player Book 3 (TBA, Lost Island Press)
Overall, I’m so happy to be able to say that I’ve written my third book. I can’t wait to start editing Deadwood Burning and finish writing the final book in the trilogy.
Can’t wait to share more with you all!
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