I managed to write about 800 more words in my WIP. That was yesterday. All the week prior I managed to get distracted by various things including preparing to go camping, camping Friday to Saturday at Lake Anna, playing runescape, and now Eden Eternal.
There is only one more chapter I need to look at and then as long as I don't think up another chapter or two the first draft of my novel will be done. I wrote a much needed chapter to make things fit into place and took out a chapter place holder that was never going to get written.
This will be the first time I have ever finished a first draft of a novel length story. I did write a novel before this but decided to do a major rewrite before finishing the first draft and then the story never got finished. I keep reading that others say the first novel you ever write usually should never be published. Hopefully that was the one that I never finished. If the interest of my children in my current novel is any indication I would say that this novel is one that will be of interest to more people. Time, of course, will tell.
As long as Eden Eternal doesn't distract me too much, I should have the first draft done by the end of this week or at least before the 5th of July.
I'm so jealous, Rob!
ReplyDeleteI think this novel will be fine as long as you revise it well.
If you're like me and have written a few attempts at novels but stopped at say, 20,000 words, then my theory is that those amount to that first novel that shouldn't be published. Now I'm writing Aundes Aura, and I know it's "the one". If you know this is "the one", then I'm certain you'll ensure it lives up to your expectations. ;)
How far along are you on Aundes Aura?
ReplyDeleteThat first one that I never finished could have been around 20,000 words. I don't remember and don't even know if I still have a copy of it.
I am convinced that this is the novel that will get published and that there are many readers that will enjoy it.
It will be interesting as I move into the revise phase. I am thinking that it will go faster than the actual writing of the novel but could be wrong. It seems to me it takes me longer to create the story. Now that the story is written it shouldn't take me as long to make it more interesting, more readable, and get as many problems out of it as possible.
I'm just over 40,000 words in at the moment, which is 50 - 57% of the length I'd like it to be at the end of the first draft.
ReplyDeleteI've never been into a revision stage -- the concept is actually exciting to me. You've finished, and now you get to make it even better. The pressure isn't on to clunk out 1000s upon 1000s of words. You have stuff to work with.
I think my own revisions will go much, much faster than the writing of my first draft. I'm actually a little ashamed that I've been working on it for this long. It's been one and a half years since I started this draft -- more than three years since I started working on the story itself.
But it gives me hope when people speak of having finished their second novel in 8 months, their third in 3.
That's it, though. I love this one to pieces and I know it's the One, so I'll stick with it . . . I'll take it all the way until people are buying it. :)
Mine is almost 77,000 words. I wanted it to be 80,000 or 90,000. I am pretty sure there are many sections where I need to describe things a bit better and show more and tell less. I believe during the first full revision that my word count will still go up.
ReplyDeleteI've been working on this novel since August of 2008. So that's almost three years. There have been months where I didn't write anything because I let too many other things distract me. I still get distracted but not as much as I used to.
I am wondering how long it will take me to finish the next book in this series. I think less time because I am more focused now.
A lot of my focus has come from the knowledge that once I feel a book is ready I can publish it myself and make it available for purchase instead of having to wait for a publisher to accept it.
That's a nice, healthy-sized book. ;)
ReplyDeleteYeah, I find I very freeing that it can pretty much go straight up as soon as it's ready.