The first draft is completed! Now onto illustrations!

​The first draft of The Osiris Circle is complete!

The book was finished in about a year and a half — which is the fastest I've completed any manuscript. There were three major factors that contributed to the speed of completion.

The first was the intentional brevity of the manuscript. As an illustrated novel, about half the book will be artwork, so I accounted for this during the writing process in order to maintain a 200+ page count. 

Second, the book is intended for a younger audience than I usually write for — teens (ages 12 to 17) as opposed to young adults (generally 18 to 25 year olds). As such, the plot is less involved and although it does carry some serious themes, this had to handled appropriately for the less mature reader. 

Third, because large parts of the book have a distinctive graphic novel feel, parts of the manuscript had to read like a script with stage directions. This was ultimately quicker to write than prose.

Now, with the manuscript completed, I'll now spend another year on illustrations — many of which were only possible to create after finalizing the story and characters. 

Even though draft #1 is done, there will be more writing ahead. Revisions will ultimately be made as I get feedback from my editors and there's still a some research to be done. I'll write more about this in my next blog!

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