Gary Kruse is a writer of thriller, SF & horror fiction about people on the edge of society struggling to find who they are, where they come from and where they’re going. He has won and been shortlisted for several short story competitions and his debut dark thriller novel, Badlands is an Amazon bestseller..
BADLANDS – An Amazon Bestseller
A runaway with a wounded soul searches for her sister…
While a scarred orphan with a lust for blood hunts her down…
And a man of God with a heart of darkness plots both their downfalls…
Someone asked me yesterday how many drafts I do when writing a novel, and couldn’t quite believe it when I said that for Badlands I’d done twelve drafts in all, including three rounds between acceptance and publication. So for today’s post I thought I’d explore exactly what I do during each of these drafts. DraftContinue reading “Notes from a Writer’s Life #16”
So was it worth it? That was the question on my mind as I started the read through of Bleak Waters draft two. Long time readers may recall that after writing draft one I realised I had told the story from the wrong point of view. At that point I had two choices. Ditch itContinue reading “Notes from a Writer’s Life #15”
With the second draft of Bleak Waters complete, I’m in that in-between phase, letting the text cool off while I prepare for the edits. The second draft is always the one with the most changes, whether that’s plot, character or story structure, but Bleak Waters is another level again. It was a full re-write, draftContinue reading “Notes from a Writer’s Life #14”
It’s finished! Almost three months since I started the full second draft rewrite, Bleak Waters draft two is complete! It’s safe to say that this has been the hardest book to write so far. The plot is complex, the back story crucial and needed to be drop-fed into the plot at the right time andContinue reading “Notes from a Writer’s Life #13”
It’s been a couple of weeks since my last post, as I have been putting all my effort into getting through draft two of Bleak Waters. I thought I was going well, but this last week I’ve hit two major hurdles that have threatened to derail the whole thing. It started with the discovery ofContinue reading “Notes from a Writer’s Life #12”
Hello! Been a while since my last post, but things have been hectic and I’ve been cracking on with the rewrite of Bleak Waters. I’m currently at 33K words now, well into Act 2 and the plot is coming along nicely. Ditching draft one and rewriting from scratch definitely feels like the right decision. TheContinue reading “Notes from a Writer’s Life #11”
Navigating the plot maze. A month since I started and the rewrites on Bleak Waters are moving on well now. I’m approaching 30K words and am almost at the 1/3 mark of the target word count of 90K. As always, the writing process involves listening to my intuition as I write. As technically this isContinue reading “Notes from a Writer’s Life #10”
From despair to ecstasy… At about 10.15 this morning, I was sitting in the Costa Coffee in the local Next store, staring at the screen and seriously contemplating closing the file on Bleak Waters forever. It’s now 1.30 in the afternoon and not only have I pushed through this malaise, I’ve really enjoyed writing theContinue reading “Notes from a Writer’s Life #9”
Gary Kruse - Author 