Sunday, September 30, 2007 - 3:30 pm MST.

That's when I finished typing out the final line for Rule of Two on my computer. (Note: title not 100% final yet.) The book is officially done! Well, not officially. It's done, though. Mostly. As done as things get when an author finishes a manuscript... which isn't necessarily done at all.

In fact, there's a whole series of steps that are needed before a novel becomes "final". And, since I'm "done" the manuscript - and I'm still buzzing with a creative high and looking for more stuff to write like some kind of word junkie desperate for his next fix - I figured I'd update my blog and give you a little glimpse into what it's like writing for a living. (If you're not interested... well, then why the hell are you still reading? Just click back on your browser and go somewhere else.)

Still here? Great. Let me break it down for you with a real-world example. Here's how Rule of Two came together.

Right around Father's Day in June, I got a call from my editors at Del Rey and Lucas (Shelly Shapiro and Sue Rostoni). They told me how pleased they were with the PoD sales (thanks to everyone who forked over $$ to pick a copy up!) and they asked if I wanted to write a sequel.

Obviously I jumped at the chance. One catch - I had to have the novel done by October 1st. Not a problem... except for the fact I was also working 60-70 hours a week at BioWare on a little game called Mass Effect. No problem, though - I was planning to take a couple months off once we finished Mass Effect, so I'd have plenty of free time on my hands to write the Bane sequel. Or so I thought.

I began by writing up a 5 page plot synopsis of the entire novel. It didn't take me long to come up with the basic premise - I'd been thinking about it ever since I wrote PoD. The whole point of the epilogue in PoD was to show that the story of Bane was far from over. Not a shocking confession, I'm sure - I wasn't really subtle about it. (Yep, I'm the kind of writer who will purposefully write in material just so I can have a sequel. Call me a hack. I call it career development.)

So I wrote up that 5 page synopsis covering the entire book, and sent it to my editors to get their feedback, suggestions and concerns. Fortunately the end of PoD coincides with the end of the Jedi vs Sith comics, so for the sequel I was heading into a pretty open time frame. That gave me a tremendous amount of freedom in the story, and they didn't really have any significant changes they wanted me to make.

Once I got the feedback and approval on the outline, I started writing out detailed chapter by chapter descriptions of what was going to happen in the book. This came in at 15 pages, and as general rule I stick pretty close to my outline as I'm writing. That's not to say I won't change something if it adds to or improves the story, but a strong outline helps keep a nice, tight focus on the main themes and threads I'm working with.

This whole process took me well into July. At this point, it became clear that Mass Effect was still going to need me through the summer, and I had to change my plans. Instead of taking August and September off from BioWare to work on the book, I would now get Sept 15 - October 15. So I'd only get 2 weeks of "free" time at the end of September to spend full time on the novel. That meant I had to work on the book part time during July and August, while I was also busting my... uh... hump to put the finishing touches on the Mass Effect game.

So, for 10 weeks I fell into a little routine. Roll into work around 9:30 in the morning. Work on Mass Effect... a lot. Get home around 10:30 at night. Spend a half-hour checking e-mails and switching from Mass Effect mode to a Star Wars frame of mind. Work on the novel for two hours. Go to bed around 1:00 am. Repeat 6 days a week. (On Sunday, see my wife, golf and try to keep my head from exploding from the stress.)

This was basically my life from the start of August until mid September, with a 5 day break down in Austin for a video game developers conference. (Where I was a presenter, so I also had to get materials for my talk written up.)

Then, on September 15th, I began my "vacation". I didn't have to go into work at Bioware, but my days didn't get any shorter. Now I was really digging in deep on the novel. I wrote, rewrote, then wrote again. (I'm not looking for sympathy here - well, not much. Writing is, after all, my JOB. So I treat it like a full time job. It's a job I happen to love, but I take it seriously... and so should you if you want to be a writer.)

When I write, I always follow the same basic process. As I finish each chapter, I print it out and give it to my wife, Jennifer. She reads it, then we sit down and she gives me her take: which characters she likes, what sections work or don't work, what's confusing or clumsy in the way it's presented. She's basically a sounding board and second set of eyes for me to make sure everything comes out as I intended.

With her input, I make revisions and rewrites and get to a "final" draft... which is where I'm at now. But the final draft really just means I'm sending this out to my editors so they can do their own review. Then they'll send me comments, criticisms, suggestions and other feedback. So there could still be some changes or rewrites coming down the pipe.

Having said that, because I stick closely to my pre-approved outline I don't usually have to do much in the way of rewriting. Planning and preperation, even in something creative like writing or developing video games, means a lot fewer changes at the end of the project.

So, hopefully Shelly and Sue will get back to me with a thumbs up and I won't have to do major rewrites. After their approval, we need to get the "galleys" done up. This is typically a hard-copy version of the entire manuscript that is sent to me by courier so I can make sure I'm happy with all the typesetting, edits, and any other changes made on their end.

I review the galleys, make any notes or edits of my own in ink on the paper, then courier it back to the publisher. (Yep - publishers still like to work in paper for this step. Seems archaic and old-fashioned, but it's also nice to have something much closer to the final "feel" of the book as it will exist on the shelves.)

After they receive the galleys back from me, the manuscript really is "final". At this point all that's left is the printing, cover and binding, and shipping it to the retailers... just in time for December 26th!

Hopefully you found this little glimpse into my world interesting and informative. If you didn't... tough. This blog's free and you get what you pay for.

Okay, that's all for today. Thanks to everyone who's posting comments on my blog, and I'll try to give more updates as the manuscript continues to move through the approval process towards the retail shelves.

Embrace the dark side.
Drew