Muffler's Ministry: Part Three First Draft Complete

It's time for the next milestone update. I've now completed the first draft of part three, The Oracle, of the Muffler's Ministry, Just part four, The Adversary, to go.

Unusually my chapter structure for this part panned out exactly as I expected, probably as there were less of them. I predicted 15,000 words and it came out at 15,100. I must be getting better at planning! For completeness, these were the chapters.

1. Sanctuary

2. Recovery

3. Discovery

4. History

So now onto part four. I'm expecting this to be around 17,500 words, giving a total of 92,500 for the whole novel, at east in the first draft. I'm planning six chapters at this stage.

1. The Minister

2. The Plan

3. The Diversion

4. The Attack

5. The Outcome

6. The Aftermath

Then I'll be onto the second draft before I pass it to my early reader. I'm not sure the length will change too much then, as there's a bit of chaff to strip out as well as details to polish. We'll see.

The image at the top is my current draft cover which I've used on the dedicated page on my website for this novel. Yes, it's got its own page now, including a preview of the current draft of the opening chapters! The cover's not quite right yet, but it's getting there. I think the castle icons either side of the title will go, and the image in the centre needs a little work, but it's starting to have the right feel for the novel.

Right, time to get on with part four, although I'm a little distracted waiting for the SpaceX Starship SN5 to perform its last hop. Also slightly sleepy after watching it abort its first attempt at 1am...