I started the draft on 6 March, so it took me 4 months and 1 day to write. I had an initial estimated word count of 100,000 words, but in the end it came in at 77,975 words. Whatever. The story knows better than me how long it should be, right? And it may get longer (or shorter) in revisions.
Ugh! Revisions! I am a bit petrified of them. I know that the book is far from finished yet. I didn't revise as I wrote, and so the book is currently filled with plot holes, cardboard characters, and unconvincing motivations. So. Much. Work! I've got a list of changes I've already realised I've got to make, waiting for me to implement. Some of these are going to be huge. For example:
- Introduce [minor character] and [minor character] earlier. (Um, where?)
- Chapter 15 is boring. Fix.
Seriously, I copy-pasted that second note exactly.
But at least I have that lump of clay on the wheel now, ready to be shaped.
But at least I have that lump of clay on the wheel now, ready to be shaped.
I will start the revisions on 1 September. Until then, I will be leaving the novel to sit, so that I have some distance from it, and catching up with all the other things I have procrastinated while I have been in Writer Mode. Which is a whole other reason to panic.
3 comments:
Congrats on finishing! I got that to with the initial estimate, I had estimated my draft to be around the 80k mark but it's just 55k but I don't think I could make it longer just with the first draft. I'm rather afraid of the revisions as well, I wrote my first draft with JulNoWriMo in ten days so I have plot holes the size of Jupiter and bi-polar characters everywhere - not looking forward to it!
We just have to keep in mind that revisions are a part of the process, eh? I'm going to make a revision plan, e.g.:
Week 1 - fix problems I've made notes on
Week 2 - fix character 1's arc
Week 3 - fix character 2's arc
and so on . . .
Good luck with your novel!
That's a good idea, my main issue is fixing the plots I think so that's going to be my step one, not sure how long that will take!
Thank you, good luck with your novel as well!
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