At 2.30 today I finished the first draft of my first novel.
I am so excited I can barely contain myself. Sent a large email out to anyone who's email address I ever saved, so if you got it and didn't want to know, sorry and shame on you for being a downer!
82520 words is the final count. About 12000 more than I anticipated. But I'm thinking at least 7000 will go once the Red Pen of Doom attacks the draft on Monday.
But this weekend I'm in Reading for the getting drunk.
If you can't join me for a drink, fill a recepticle with booze and tilt it in acknowledgment, would ya.
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Done it. Finished a novel.
That puts me ahead of about 80% of writers in the world.
Plus, 11 days ago I was at 60000 words. That's over a quarter of the novel I've written in that time. I could have been rich and famous by now if I'd got my finger out years ago.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
One to go!
So tonight I completed the penultimate chapter, with a word count sitting at 79507. Which is a pain because I wanted to end on 80000.
Now I could start the final chapter "Homecoming" to reach that target, but if I do, I'll work until the book is finished, whch will leave me dead tomorrow.
ut tomorrow the first draft will be completed. there's no doubt that, barring a crippling fatigue strike, I will have a completed first draft by 7pm tomorrow (checks watch), tonight.
Todays words are not the best I've ever written. But they will do for now. Prettying up language is what second drafts are all about!
One to go.
People, we have a near "Go get drinks in to celebrate" situation.
Now I could start the final chapter "Homecoming" to reach that target, but if I do, I'll work until the book is finished, whch will leave me dead tomorrow.
ut tomorrow the first draft will be completed. there's no doubt that, barring a crippling fatigue strike, I will have a completed first draft by 7pm tomorrow (checks watch), tonight.
Todays words are not the best I've ever written. But they will do for now. Prettying up language is what second drafts are all about!
One to go.
People, we have a near "Go get drinks in to celebrate" situation.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
So Close I can Taste it.
So, the final battle is written. The enemy is vanquished and there are only 2 chapters left to write.
Holy crap, I've damn near written a novel. And one of the chapters is only a short epilogue. Current word count is 76323, which for those of you paying attention means I wrote over 6000 words since yesterday!
The wrap up chapter is probably only 3000 or so long and the epilogue 1500. So that's less words to finish it than I've done in the past 36 hours.
8 years of work nearly complete.
Excuse me if I ramble, I can't quite believe it.
Holy crap, I've damn near written a novel. And one of the chapters is only a short epilogue. Current word count is 76323, which for those of you paying attention means I wrote over 6000 words since yesterday!
The wrap up chapter is probably only 3000 or so long and the epilogue 1500. So that's less words to finish it than I've done in the past 36 hours.
8 years of work nearly complete.
Excuse me if I ramble, I can't quite believe it.
Monday, March 12, 2007
70000 words and still writing
Yes, that's right. Today I hit 70000 words and I'm still going.
I'm now in the middle of the end fight and I'm feeling good about this. I may even work through until I get to the very end of the battle. To get to the very last bit of action would be awesome, it's possible I could even do that tonight. If I worked like a mad bastard I could even have a finished book by tomorrow and although I'm tempted to go for it, I don't think it's such a great idea.
OK, so I said I could have it done by yesterday, but I lost 2 days after Thursdays late nighter, so finishing tomorrow or Wednesday isn't bad for that guess.
Final word count guesstimation - 78000.
That's 7000 more than I have now. I'm thinking another 3 to get to the end of the fighting and 4 to tie up loose ends and lay the groundwork for book 2. Plus, that totally unexpected cliffhanger that should make you all want the second part of the saga.
I'm due in Reading this weekend and it will be wicked if I have a finished first draft to get my mates to buy me drinks for, I mean celebrate with me.
I'm now in the middle of the end fight and I'm feeling good about this. I may even work through until I get to the very end of the battle. To get to the very last bit of action would be awesome, it's possible I could even do that tonight. If I worked like a mad bastard I could even have a finished book by tomorrow and although I'm tempted to go for it, I don't think it's such a great idea.
OK, so I said I could have it done by yesterday, but I lost 2 days after Thursdays late nighter, so finishing tomorrow or Wednesday isn't bad for that guess.
Final word count guesstimation - 78000.
That's 7000 more than I have now. I'm thinking another 3 to get to the end of the fighting and 4 to tie up loose ends and lay the groundwork for book 2. Plus, that totally unexpected cliffhanger that should make you all want the second part of the saga.
I'm due in Reading this weekend and it will be wicked if I have a finished first draft to get my mates to buy me drinks for, I mean celebrate with me.
Friday, March 09, 2007
A Damn Fine Day!
Today is a fine and beautiful day. A day that shall long be remembered (by me) as being one of the best for years.
Last night went on a mad late night writing spree, something I have not done for years. Cranked out 3000 words describing the battle that starts the end of my novel. A little bit touching in places, crazy in others and a couple of out there moments for you to enjoy if/when it sees print.
So now I'm to the point I have been envisioning for years, all the little individual fights my heroes get. Each has their own moment to shine. I'm thinking maybe 6000 words until the heroes are victorious and another 4000 until the very end. Which puts the total wordcount at about 5000 more than I thought, but we shall see.
On top of that, today I got a preview of the artwork for my first comic to see print, besides my own homemade effort, and it's great. Coming in a FutureQuake near you soon. Plus the artist said he would send me the pages so I have them to keep as a reminder!
Finally, there is to be a meeting of my old role play gang in Reading next weekend. The mighty Kurg will lead us in crazy adventures one more time. We've been talking about this happening for a year or so now, and it's about to be a reality.
All in all, one of the greatest days.
Last night went on a mad late night writing spree, something I have not done for years. Cranked out 3000 words describing the battle that starts the end of my novel. A little bit touching in places, crazy in others and a couple of out there moments for you to enjoy if/when it sees print.
So now I'm to the point I have been envisioning for years, all the little individual fights my heroes get. Each has their own moment to shine. I'm thinking maybe 6000 words until the heroes are victorious and another 4000 until the very end. Which puts the total wordcount at about 5000 more than I thought, but we shall see.
On top of that, today I got a preview of the artwork for my first comic to see print, besides my own homemade effort, and it's great. Coming in a FutureQuake near you soon. Plus the artist said he would send me the pages so I have them to keep as a reminder!
Finally, there is to be a meeting of my old role play gang in Reading next weekend. The mighty Kurg will lead us in crazy adventures one more time. We've been talking about this happening for a year or so now, and it's about to be a reality.
All in all, one of the greatest days.
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
A "HOLY CRAP!" moment.
Well, I carried on with doing todays words after my last post, and I just kept writing. While the aim is about 1000 per day, it tends to be more about finishing the scene.
So todays word count is about 1750, but that's not the thing.
Pretty much since I started on this book, there has been an image in my mind of something that was the catalyst for the big fight really kicking off at the end. Tonight I finally got to writing that point and as I got there, I realised that it left the character as a total cypher. He'd only been seen in the background or in flashes throughout and now he was going to die.
Instead everything changed, the whole mood of this final fight has been affected, in a good way I think, by a sudden flash that should provole everyone who reads it into going "Holy Crap! Did that just happen."
The kind of moment you love to read, and it's great I think I finally made one.
Not only is it shocking, it finally makes the character a character.
At this rate the ending will be complete by Sunday. Today is going well.
So todays word count is about 1750, but that's not the thing.
Pretty much since I started on this book, there has been an image in my mind of something that was the catalyst for the big fight really kicking off at the end. Tonight I finally got to writing that point and as I got there, I realised that it left the character as a total cypher. He'd only been seen in the background or in flashes throughout and now he was going to die.
Instead everything changed, the whole mood of this final fight has been affected, in a good way I think, by a sudden flash that should provole everyone who reads it into going "Holy Crap! Did that just happen."
The kind of moment you love to read, and it's great I think I finally made one.
Not only is it shocking, it finally makes the character a character.
At this rate the ending will be complete by Sunday. Today is going well.
Chugga Chugga Chugga - just chugging along.
Well, by cracky, it looks as though the end is near. By the end of tonight the final battle will have commenced.
I'll probably get as far as the first arrow being fired, the first blow being swung and then stop, to go for a balls out action rampage tomorrow.
Quite frankly, at the speed I write when I'm going, I should be doing an easy 5000 words a day, and that's something I used to be able to do, until I got ill. But I'm not complaining, I do what I can as I can and what comes out is what comes out.
If I take onle lesson from this into the start of the next novel I start, it will be to work from a goddamn fixed synopsis and some chapter breakdowns! Fluidity in a story is not a bad thing, it allows the old creative juices to do their thang. But this book is almost nothing like the original pitch I made to myself about it. The magic sword is gone, in came big armies and personal responsibilities. The macguffin responsible for kick starting the story now takes a massive back seat, it hasn't even been written in as a seen thing yet. Instead it's now going to form the end of the book. And at last I have a definite fixed end to this book.
The actual fight and the events therein are still somewhat loose, there are major points that I have to hit, but beyond that it's all improvisational right now.
10 days, that's what I think. Friday next week I hope to be writing the words that every fantasy novel should end with:
To Be Continued...
I'll probably get as far as the first arrow being fired, the first blow being swung and then stop, to go for a balls out action rampage tomorrow.
Quite frankly, at the speed I write when I'm going, I should be doing an easy 5000 words a day, and that's something I used to be able to do, until I got ill. But I'm not complaining, I do what I can as I can and what comes out is what comes out.
If I take onle lesson from this into the start of the next novel I start, it will be to work from a goddamn fixed synopsis and some chapter breakdowns! Fluidity in a story is not a bad thing, it allows the old creative juices to do their thang. But this book is almost nothing like the original pitch I made to myself about it. The magic sword is gone, in came big armies and personal responsibilities. The macguffin responsible for kick starting the story now takes a massive back seat, it hasn't even been written in as a seen thing yet. Instead it's now going to form the end of the book. And at last I have a definite fixed end to this book.
The actual fight and the events therein are still somewhat loose, there are major points that I have to hit, but beyond that it's all improvisational right now.
10 days, that's what I think. Friday next week I hope to be writing the words that every fantasy novel should end with:
To Be Continued...
Sunday, March 04, 2007
60000 words!
Well, hello there my small munchkins of delight!
Did you miss me?
I haven't been a blogging fool for quite some time now, a quick check on the last date says it's been nearly 2 months.
Well in that time I have been writing, working on the children's novel, and today I finally hit 60000 words!
Quite frankly, for something I started 8 years ago, it's not been fast enough, considering 20000 have been done in the last 6 months, but we're getting there. The final battle approaches as all the players finally get their arses in gear and the druids begin to hand out slappings left and right!
It's been a weird process to get this far, and I'm looking forward to having a finished article to tout about. Once it's done I shall be both plotting the sequel, which finishes this arc of Dian's life (ambitious, huh?), and starting to actually write one of the other 6 novels I now have written up in synopsis form. A couple of those have been pitched to Abaddon books, so with any luck I might even get paid for my efforts.
I now have a fairly rigid schedule of 1000 words a day. A schedule that took a minor pounding this week due to the Fatgue attack that has had me bed ridden 5 days out of 7, but I still got 4500 words done.
And so, the final stretch approaches. Minor characters have grown into full characters, and some of them aren't going to make the finale. Some are that weren't meant to and that's been the astonishing thing as this book grows, that these characters have become as real as figments of my imagination that do as I tell them can.
Did you miss me?
I haven't been a blogging fool for quite some time now, a quick check on the last date says it's been nearly 2 months.
Well in that time I have been writing, working on the children's novel, and today I finally hit 60000 words!
Quite frankly, for something I started 8 years ago, it's not been fast enough, considering 20000 have been done in the last 6 months, but we're getting there. The final battle approaches as all the players finally get their arses in gear and the druids begin to hand out slappings left and right!
It's been a weird process to get this far, and I'm looking forward to having a finished article to tout about. Once it's done I shall be both plotting the sequel, which finishes this arc of Dian's life (ambitious, huh?), and starting to actually write one of the other 6 novels I now have written up in synopsis form. A couple of those have been pitched to Abaddon books, so with any luck I might even get paid for my efforts.
I now have a fairly rigid schedule of 1000 words a day. A schedule that took a minor pounding this week due to the Fatgue attack that has had me bed ridden 5 days out of 7, but I still got 4500 words done.
And so, the final stretch approaches. Minor characters have grown into full characters, and some of them aren't going to make the finale. Some are that weren't meant to and that's been the astonishing thing as this book grows, that these characters have become as real as figments of my imagination that do as I tell them can.
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