For several years now, I’ve had an idea for a writing project, but for almost as long it’s felt too long, complex, and above my talent level to attempt.
Around the time I retired from my high-school gig, I started thinking about it again and eventually decided the time had come. In November of ’23, I began outlining the idea, and this afternoon I’ve completed the third, and basically final, draft.
The story is a heavily fictionalized account of certain events that took place in my hometown of Wichita, KS between the mid 70s to the early 90s that helped, for better or worse, to transform Wichita from a large town to a small city.
The numbers: 81 chapters, 402 pages, 89,000 words (by far the longest manuscript I’ve ever written). While the entire story ranges over a 80-year span of time, the main story covers 18 years in the lives of three main characters. Along with the manuscript itself, there’s probably another thirty or forty pages of outline, notes, character bios, etc.
Going to take two or three weeks away from it before I settle down to the drudgery of proofing then it will be submission time. Because this is such a different type of work, at least for me, it’s the first book I’ve done in several years where I didn’t have a contract ahead of time.
Crossing my fingers.