Update: Uncovering You 6

Alright, so I know lots of you want an update on the next book. Here it is:

I've been writing non stop since finishing UY5. The series... but moreover, your reaction to it... has exceeded all my expectations from when I began.

When I started, I intended it all to be a quick, 3-book mini serial. One, two, three, and done. This was before the first word I put on paper. As I got to the end of UY 1, however, I knew it would take longer to finish the story (which is still contained in the prologue to book 1). So I planned it out to consist of six books, still short, each about 20,000 words.

Honestly, it began as a side project for me. I had no idea whether anybody would be interested in the story I had to tell. And then I published it... and got all your reactions... and was blown away.

So I still tried to stick to the original 6-book short serial plan. But then I saw you guys asking for more depth. You wanted longer books. You wanted better insights into the characters, their motivations, their interactions, and of course, the central relationship between Lilly and her captor.

That's why the last book (UY5) was delayed. I decided to rewrite it at the last moment to give you that depth. And as I did, something extraordinary happened: I fell in love with the characters.

Before, I knew them, I knew their background, I knew their histories, I knew how they should behave... but I didn't *love* them. Maybe that's a bad confession to make, but it's the truth. I didn't love them because I didn't allow myself to, because I knew that I would have to say goodbye to them shortly.

But after UY5, all that changed. This stopped being a short, little mini series of serials. It became something much more substantial, much more dominant, in my mind.

And suddenly, I had the freedom to really create. I wasn't bound by the 20,000-word word counts. I realized these could actually be full, significant books.

So that's what's been going on. I've been working on UY6 full time and loving it. It's nearing 80,000 words already. That's pretty much the same length as Uncovering You 1 through 4 put together. So yeah, there's a lot more here for you to sink your teeth into.

I'm closing in on the end. This is the first book that I'll probably have to edit to get rid of some fluff, so the final word count might be closer to 60,000. But we'll see.

I'm looking to conclude the book by the 16th. That's next Wednesday. From there, I'll take X amount of days to transcribe it. I don't know how long 'X' is. I can transcribe at 3,000 words an hour, so you guys do the calculation of how many hours I'm looking at with an 80,000 word book. The thing is, I can't do them all in a row... I go crazy after just three hours.

(Transcribing my longhand draft is the only part of the writing process that I hate, because it's just.... drudgery. It's not creative or interesting. It's just me sitting down and forcing myself to literally copy out the words from the paper to the screen. There is no thought involved. A freaking monkey could do it, except that I don't think there's a monkey (or human) alive who can read my handwriting.)

(PS: if any of you reading this post want to give it a try, email me at scarlett@scarlettedwards.com. I would like nothing more than to find someone who can do my transcribing for me. That way the books will come out much faster because I won't have to lose time on those unproductive, non-creative, transcribing days that I hate. You'd obviously get paid, too.)

Once the transcription is done, the book goes off to my editor. She'll take about a week. Then it'll be ready for release.

So that's the long, too-much-information update. The last thing I should say is that I am not going back to short books anymore. At least, not for this series. You've made it known loud and clear you prefer full length books. That's what you're going to get. I don't know how many books there are going to be until we get to the prologue from UY1. I am literally discovering Jeremy and Lilly's story along with you. There's no point on setting a clear number right now and then figuring out that it didn't give me enough space to reach the conclusion.

So there you have it. This is the blog post I should have made weeks ago, but I've been writing. Now, at least, you know where things stand in terms of UY6, the remaining books, the release schedule, and about my writing process a bit more. Post comments below, I'll check my site again in a few days and answer any questions or concerns you have.

Much love,
Scarlett.