Finished First Draft!

loquax · Aug 6, 2005

And when I say first draft, I mean my first ever first draft! 120,000 words - more than ten times what I've ever managed to write before. But I must admit it doesn't feel as good as I was expecting... I just know I have a LOT of editing ahead...

alaskamatt17 · Aug 6, 2005

Trust me, it's awesome to have finished a first draft of 120,00 words! A general rule of thumb I've heard is that you should cut 10%, so you should end up around 108,000 words, which is almost the perfect length for most publishers.

Congratulations!

loquax · Aug 6, 2005

Cheers for the congrats, matt. I tend to underwrite though.... I can't face going over it right now - I need a bit of a break - but if I were to increase the word count rather than decrease it, do you reckon it would 'fare me ill'?

black winged fighter · Aug 6, 2005

Fantastic! And good luck with editing all that...

azbikergirl · Aug 6, 2005

Woah! Congrats! Great accomplishment, that. Takes a lot of perseverence. I've started about twice as many novels as I've finished

Azure Skye · Aug 7, 2005

Congratulations.

jdkiggins · Aug 7, 2005

loquax,
Congratulations on the completed manuscript!
Good luck with the editing.

Kudra · Aug 7, 2005

Wow, that's fantastic, loquax! Now put the manuscript aside for a couple of days and go out and celebrate! :banana:

loquax · Aug 7, 2005

Thanks everyone! It's so hard to leave it though.... it's just sitting there.... calling me....

Selene LuPaine · Aug 7, 2005

lol, well thats good then that you want to edit your work which will take lots of time and patience. Congratulations on finishing your novel!

WriterInChains · Aug 7, 2005

Congratulations!

It's a great feeling to get to the end -- even if that means that you go right back to the beginning again.

Just my $0.02, but putting it aside for awhile & celebrating, is great advice.
If you can't "not write" [& believe me, I know the feeling!] start another book, or a short story . . . anything so you can give your finished work a little breathing room.

Have a great day!

loquax · Aug 7, 2005

Yup - that's what I'm trying to do right now - work on the sequel. But the ms will always be in the back of my mind screaming "look at all my spelling errors and plot inconsistencies!"

I'll have to get started on this new one pretty soon if only to drown out the noise.

Simran · Aug 11, 2005

Congrats Loquax! Way To Go! :Clap:

Finished First Draft!

loquax

I verb nouns adverbly

alaskamatt17

loquax

I verb nouns adverbly

black winged fighter

AW Addict

azbikergirl

I really do look like this.

Azure Skye

Huh?

jdkiggins

Troubled-Talks with animals.

Kudra

Back and on track

loquax

I verb nouns adverbly

Selene LuPaine

WriterInChains

Feed my eyes

loquax

I verb nouns adverbly

Simran