Novella Rough Draft Done

I finished the novella last night. It came out to 148 pages. The next step is to read through it in one sitting and see how it reads. If it reads well, the plan is to go through it with a deep polish. I'll be looking at things like dialogue and prose as well as story elements like foreshadowing and plot points, etc. If it doesn't read well, the plan is to fix it so it does. Once it's all done, I'm going to put it aside for 30 days and then go through it again with fresher eyes.

Since it's set mostly on earth between the events of books one and two, it's from Deirdre's perspective. She can never go back to Yesh the way the other characters can. Filling out her story made a lot sense. The other characters can all go back and make appearances in the events of the other earth. What happened to Deirdre? She's in book 1, but how is she dealing with never being able to go back? The novella goes into that.

In other news, I've been thinking about the next project. Book 2 needs to be gone through one final time. Book 3 needs to be finished. I also need to finish the non-fiction book. I've been collecting ideas and thoughts on the side but not too much. I want a certain word count, but I don't want to keep adding and adding. I anticipate it being a lot easier to finish than a fiction book. I don't have to worry about character arcs or story arcs or plot points or any of that. Each chapter can be its own unit that can be finished and polished independently of the others. I'm leaning toward using the 30 days off from the novella to finish the non-fiction book.

I've been putting some thought into the  middle grade trilogy(80k to 90k word count tops). I'll need a story arc through the trilogy and story arcs for the books. I have some thoughts but haven't nailed it down yet. I've been thinking about a couple of old science fiction book ideas. Is time to write one of them? I've been thinking about a completely different series altogether that could be part SF and part fantasy. I'm not sure it matters which comes next. The important thing is working on making the writing as professional and polished as I can. I've been wondering if I need a publisher.

Have a great weekend.