JULIA first draft is finished!

The heroine – Julia Bacausa

Oh, the joy and the relief of finishing the first draft of a new book!

Along with a sense of achievement comes a feeling of numbness. You’ve completed the story. No more sitting at the keyboard ready to plunge into the book world and typing to find out what happens next. No more writing (hopefully sparky) dialogue for your characters, but no more looking up Roman roads, dalmaticae, wayside inns or political and religious issues of the late fourth century.

But wait!  I may have a 98,000 word story, but it’s rough. Not the story, which I’m happy with, but the words. Some of the sentences were tapped out at warp speed in an effort to get them down before my brain forgot what it had dreamed up. They’ll be reasonably grammatical and will contain the essentials, but they need buffing up.

No author, or possibly only a very few geniuses, writes in their first draft what finally appears on an ereader or print book that a reader has paid good money for. I explain editing here. It’s hard work, sometimes painful to the ego, sometimes joyous and often involves a lot of muttering such as ‘thank goodness I saw that’, ‘will my critique partner ever run out of red pen?’ and ‘my copy editor is dead right’.

But back to the book…

I intended to write the story of how the founders of Roma Nova met, all about the trek north and the foundation itself. The working title was Fondatio, which was a bit of a clue

Ha!

I have ended up writing half the story. When I got into it, I discovered so much more behind the characters, their story, their world, their values, their friends and family that I knew I couldn’t achieve all this within one book for my readers. And readers don’t deserve to be short-changed. Yes, I realise I will need to write another Roma Nova book now. 😉

In the meantime, I will be bringing you the story of Julia Bacausa, the Romano-Celt from Noricum. It’s a story of power, love, betrayal, vengeance and courage at a time when the Roman world was going through change, and boundaries of every sort were flexing and flowing.

More soon…

Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers –  INCEPTIO, CARINA (novella), PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO,  AURELIA, NEXUS (novella), INSURRECTIO  and RETALIO,  and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories.  Audiobooks are available for four of the series. Double Identity, a contemporary conspiracy, starts a new series of thrillers. Double Pursuit, the sequel, is now out!

Download ‘Welcome to Alison Morton’s Thriller Worlds’, a FREE eBook, as a thank you gift when you sign up to Alison’s monthly email update. You’ll also be among the first to know about news and book progress before everybody else, and take part in giveaways.

2 comments to JULIA first draft is finished!

  • Chris Torrance

    Ooh, this sounds exciting! I’ve been hoping you would write a book about the beginnings of Roma Nova. Looking forward to reading it.

    • Alison

      I found it intriguing, not just because it’s the backstory to the Carina and Aurelia novels, but for the research and motivation of the characters. The end of the fourth century is period of transition, yet remains essentially imperial Roman.

      On with the editing! 😉

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