Novel 2 Stats

Started: May 4, 2007
Finished: August 25, 2007
Total days: 113
Total wordcount: 54,654
Average words per day: 484 Waaaay below my 1000/day goal. But, there were many days off and many hardships. Oh well, at least it will be easy to do better next time!

aaaaaaand DONE!

I finished draft 1 of novel 2, tentatively titled "The Spirit Thief" at 10 last night. It clocks in at 54,600 words, which is too short, but I'm not worried. I skipped over a lot at the end, and I'm going to be adding several scenes in the edit. The final word count should be around 65-70k, putting it in prime marketability range.

Now, it's time for two weeks off while I move, plan novel 2, do some world building, and figure out how to solve all the problems I glossed over in this draft. I've got my work cut out for me.

Here's the schedule (Monday to Monday):
8/27 - 9/10: Move in, world build, brainstorm for edits, let the work sit. Brain storm for book 2 to see if I need to add any set up.
9/10 - 10/8: First edit, fix all plot issues, get my word count up, fix characterization, add in foreshadowing, basically turn a rough draft into a finished draft.
10/8 - 10/15: Let draft sit again, write first draft of query letter, synopsis, etc. Put together a spreadsheet of agents to contact.
10/15 - 11/5: Second edits. This is the final sweep, clean up readability, word flow, check pacing, grammar, etc.
11/5-12/3: Print up and hand out reader copies. Do spot edits, revise query letter and synopsis.
12/3-12/31: Incorporate reader comments, do one final read through chapter by chapter, prepare queries for mail out.
1/2: Mail out first batch of queries. After that, mail out 5 queries per week until it sells or I get sick of being rejected.
1/3: Start writing new book.

A nice, spread out schedule, I think. This time I want to be SURE the book is as fantastic as I can make it before mailing it out. For right now, though, I'm going to take a breather and bask in the glow of doneness (and type out some of these ideas that have been poking at me lately).

Two novels down, infinity to go.

Break on through

At last, this morning I finally wrote some new words. The end is in sight!

*BANGBANGBANG*

So here I am, 2 major scenes from the end of my novel and I hit a brick wall. This is the CLIMAX, where all the twists are revealed and everything comes to a head, and my villain refuses to work with me. All I ask is a little evil pontification, why is that so hard? Normally, it's the EASIEST thing to write, but it just won't come this time.

So, here's the plan. I'm going to go through what I've already written and make a road map. Then, I will add foreshadowing and villain development where it is needed (like a literary hotfix). That way, when I reach this current tangle again, I'll have a fully developed, well foreshadowed villain coming up with his own lines, rather than a cardboard puppet I shove lines into. Everybody wins!

Sadly, this pushes the complete date back by another week at least, most likely, but the book will (hopefully) be much stronger when I begin the edit.

I'm well ahead of my September first deadline anyway, so I can afford to do it right. Assuming, of course, that I don't slack off. No room for slacking off this late in the game!

getting the wheel rolling again

After the death of my Godfather, things have been so slow. Now only did I have a lot on my mind, but I stopped right in the middle of a hard bit.

Now I have to keep going, 1000 words a day, until I’m done.

Boats against the current and all that. Ugh.

so this week has been a bust

BUT, as soon as Harry Potter is read, I will be the writing master! Nothing shall stand in my way!!

Half way there, just a bit more...

I'll still be done by September. I have to be! Avatar Season 3 starts then, and if I'm not done by then, it'll eat me whole!

The plan:

Done by September
Edit 1 done by October
Let it sit a few weeks, another edit done by mid-November, then off to readers.
Readers have it until right before Christmas, then I spend Christmas slowdown adding in comments, fixing problems, etc. Also, this is when I'll draft my query letter, synopsis, and get my first 30 pages in crazy good condition.

JANUARY - start mailing queries, start on the next novel.

NEVAR FORGET

"Those who say they want to be writers, and aren't writing, don't."
- Earnest Hemmingway

The only writing quote that matters!

Go go gadget writing!

1000 words a day for the last week, and MAN, do I feel good! Today I saved the file at just over 15,000 words, which means I've only got 55,000 left to go to meet my target of 70k! At 1000 a day, that's 55 days (yay for easy math!), which should put my end date in the last week of August, 4 weeks ahead of schedule ^____^. Of course, a LOT can go wrong between now and then. I could reach the end of my story at around 50,000 and be forced to ADD MORE SHIT. The mind boggles! Looking at the scenes I have planned, I get the feeling I'll reach the end somewhere in the 60-70k range, which would be just about perfect since I'm going to have to add a bit more information to the early chapters. Over all I'm kicking ass, taking names, chewing gum, etc., etc.

Writing happiness is the best happiness!

finding what was never lost

Today (instead of working) I read a fantastic article about writing. I won't pontificate further, the author makes his case far more eloquently that I could.

In the space between my last novel and my current one, I went through a lot of words. Many worlds were built, peopled, imperiled, and thrown aside in fits of ennui. I was bored with it all, bored with endless world building and complicated histories, bored with the vital, core practices of writing.

This terrified me, and I spent most of the first part of this year ignoring it. After all, I was doing everything right. I got up every morning at 7 and diligently wrote until it was time to go work, where I would make maps and fill in my wiki until I went home and wrote some more. Such is the process, I thought, by which every novel is built. Only I was failing. My writing was horrid, painful, and, worst of all, dull. This sparked more terror. If I was bored with writing, I was bored with life. "You are failing our Great Ambition," my inner teenager screamed constantly, "How can you go on?!" And the secret was, I couldn't. Not as I was. And that was more frightening than the boredom.

Then, one morning a few weeks ago, I stumbled upon the stupidly simple answer. I would just write something else. Something fun. And I wouldn't worry about if the writing was good or if I knew where I was going. I had a book series I'd been half planning for months, but hadn't really written anything down for, so I decided to try that. I didn't have a map, and only one character actually had a name when I opened the new file, but I knew how it began, and that was enough for one morning's worth of work.

I loved it, I was giggling and writing faster than ever before. I ended up being late to work because I had to finish off the scene. It took me six months to lose my joy of writing, but only 2 hours to find it again.

I'm 10,000 words into my new book, and it hasn't always been as easy or fun as that first day. Right now, for example, I've written my way into a corner that would not have been here if I'd planned this novel like I did my others. Free fall writing is not without its disadvantages. But I haven't been bored. Sometimes, I can feel the boredom creeping when I'm working my way through some particularly weighty square peg that needs to go in a round hole. When that happens, I just pick it up and move on. Perfection is a moot point at this stage, so is worrying and pace. All that matters is flying free with the story.

Writing is fun again. Sweeter words were never written.

number love

It's my big secret, I love numbers when they're about my novel!

Please note the new progress bar on the left. It tracks my progress towards my weekly wordcount goal. Hopefully, swift movement on the smaller bar will stimulate the growth of the larger, meaning more happy for everyone.

It's all about breaking this huge, overwhelming project into bite sized chunks. I can finish this novel by September if I can make my weekly goals. I can make my weekly goals if I write 6250 words every week. That's only 1200 words a day if I want to take weekends off, or 800 words a day if I write every day. And suddenly, the novel's not so scary.

Of course, writing words doesn't finish the novel, telling the story finishes the novel. But it's a good way to make me sit down and pound the keys every morning, and that's how you walk the path.