122 Rules by Deek Rhew

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

First Editing Letter for Xtractors

I'm back! I've been hiding in the Creative Writing Cave for the last two and half months writing the first draft of a new sci-fi novel, Xtractors. At this time I can't give very much away, but it's a futuristic thriller and includes virtual reality, video games, drones,



robots, self-driving cars, politics, super moguls, and dragons.


Wut?

Yep! Frigging dragons. How cool is that?

Okay, so when can we get our hands on this thang? Well, unfortunately, not for a while. The rough is just the rough, and I still need to edit the heck out of it. I was lucky enough to get to write a post for Touchstone Editing's blog about editing from the author's point of view. Besides my brilliant and stunning bride, Erin RhewAnya Kagan (who works for Touchstone) was the other editor for my novels 122 Rules and Birth of an American Gigolo.

For each of these books, Anya wrote me an initial editorial letter. So to kick off the Xtractor editing process, I decided to write myself one!




Yes! I figured I would try and get ahead of the process.

Okay, so what's in the letter? So far, it's a page and half of plot holes, plot development, character development, character motivations, conversations that came up short, and nuggets of information that I figured out later that need to be sprinkled in throughout the story.

Also, there are a ton of scientific notes.


I've always wondered about the brilliant minds, such as Erin's, that can build entire worlds. I cannot image being able to create people, religions, and lands. However, in this book, I found myself doing nearly that.

In future we have an entirely different set of problems. So I found myself which groups of people would protest and why? How would they would react to changing situations? What the shifting political winds would they whisper about? What would day-to-day life be like when technology has advanced by several decades?

Hint: It's


Anyway, I have another week to finish the editorial letter to myself, and then I begin filling in the pieces of the story. After that, months of rewriting and filling in the blanks will ensue.

The story is starting to take shape. I have the basic bones of it cleaned off, and now I'm off to keep on refining, molding, and shaping.

Look out world, here comes Xtractors!

Until next time, peeps. Adventure on!


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