Word Count: 68,105
I expect this to fluctuate as I edit, but for now that is the official number.
Final Word Count
25 Tuesday Oct 2011
Posted in Word Count
25 Tuesday Oct 2011
Posted in Word Count
Word Count: 68,105
I expect this to fluctuate as I edit, but for now that is the official number.
Congrats on getting through your first draft. I’m still a good 15,000 words away I think! I’ll be interested to see if your wordcount increases or decreases significantly. I’m at 62K at the moment, and figure I’ve got about 15K more or so. I’m shooting for something between 85K-100K
I wish you confidence and courage as you begin editing. I hear that is even harder than first drafts.
Thank you! I think it’s great that you are so close to finishing! I too want to be in that range since everything I’ve read states that mystery/thriller novels should be between 80k to 100k words, but I decided to go with a more organic ending knowing that I had some glaring holes that when filled will hopefully push it to at least 80k. As for the editing, you are right, I am struggling in some spots, but it is easier to see what to eliminate and when to add more than in the middle of writing it. BTW as of tonight, I’m at 69,878 and that’s with removing two large scenes. Good luck and I’d love to know your final word count.
I think that makes a lot of sense really. Yeah, I’ve got one chapter (chapter 9 of what I assume will be a 20ish chapter book) where my notes basically say “Hey remember that scene you wrote here? It worked until you went to Italy. Remember how Italy changed everything…yeah…you should write that.” I keep worrying that I will forget everything (but to be fair, how can one forget a honeymoon in Italy?). So I tell myself there is at least 2500 words that go in that section. Probably more like 4000.
I think it is better to have an organic ending. I’ve read 80-100K for literary fiction. I forget if mysteries (as a genre) are longer or shorter or the same. I can’t write them 🙂
Keep up the good work. I’ll let you know my final word count 🙂
Ahhh, I love Italy! Rome is one of my favorite cities in the world. But a word of caution, time will fade some of your honeymoon memories. I’d recommend jotting down some of the sensory things that stood out, like smells, sounds and the overall impression of the places you visited.
My hats off to you for writing literary fiction, for me, that’s a hard genre to write.
So what is your word count nowadays?
Okay a quick confession, I lost a lot of steam because when I started reading my ms, I realized that my protagonist was too passive and I wasn’t sure where to go with it or what plot fixes were needed. I guess I was too close and needed to step back. So now I know that I have about five chapters to add, as of right now, and it might change with this next week off. I’ve deleted a lot already and it appears that I’m about to lose some more, but as of today with sporadic to no writing for three weeks (I’m gettin’ antsy to start again, but it’s impossible with all of the company) the writing stands at 77,229. How is your writing going with all of the Holiday stuff and family obligations?
Believe me, I totally understand. As I pointed out on my blog, I lost almost 2 weeks worth of work (and roughly 10K words) because I got to writing the end, and well…I wrote my protagonist so pure, he would never screw up. Since he HAS to screw up for the ending to exist, I had to put his “screw up” earlier than I had expected. I realized I had been avoiding writing the scene, so a lot of what I wrote was not really useful.
I was just spinning my wheels.
Writing during the holidays is harder, but I’m getting it done. Whether or not I’ll actually finish this thing by the end of 2011? Well, I am working hard, but if I make it, it will be a miracle.
Good luck in your editing. I’m not looking forward to having to edit my own MS. As I am certain it is going to need a lot more work, than I want it to. Right now the latter 12 of the book feels really good, but I’m certain that once I have a week or two away from it, I’ll see the many flaws.
Keep working! If I can do it, you can!
Sorry to hear about the word loss. I hate that even though I understand it is part of the process. It makes me feel like I wasted my time when I wrote it, which isn’t true, but it feels that way. It’s great that you wrote during the holidays and I probably should’ve but I made the decision to be present for my family because when I write I tend to become consumed and am distracted or obsessed or all of them. In the end, it was a good decision because I needed to distance myself from my MS and allow my brain to marinate in its creative juices, something that is hard to do when I’m editing.
What is your blog address? I’d love to visit.
Kyoske.wordpress.com
Though I think you’ve been there before =)
Yeah, I have to say, my husband is very good about humoring me as I discuss my book. He isn’t a fan of the genre, but loves me anyway. Thankfully one friend has read about 13rd of it, so I can at least kind of discuss it with her.
Well, I’m jealous of your issue. At least you got to complete your first draft. I wrote myself into a whole, that made it impossible for me to do that. So you’re still ahead of me.
I agree with taking time away from your MS. I am looking forward to doing that, once I get these last few thousand words done.
You are right. I did try to go there, but all I saw on my Ipad was information about you moving to New York. None of your posts or blog format loaded on my Ipad. So I thought that I had the wrong site. However, when I went there tonight I finally saw your last post. You will get this done, maybe it wasn’t by the 11th or the 23rd, but you’ll write yourself out of the hole. You. Will. Get. There. Hang in there.
Okay, obviously I’m technically challenged. I just went to your site again and saw that your last post was not in November. I feel extremely dumb.
Lol! The WordPress app is hard to adjust to. It took me a few minutes to use it to write this reply.
So have you got beta readers lined up to help with the editing? I have conned a few friends into it. I let them review my first chapter, and their insight was super helpful. It is another way to get perspective 🙂
Yeah, I have a few. My brother volunteered, which makes me a little nervous. We just patched things up and I don’t want him to feel obligated to be nice, which with our history, he might think he can’t be honest. My mother, has had an article accepted for publication and has written a romance novel and she agreed, but right now is taking care of my aunt who has terminal bone cancer…not a lot of time on her plate with her also working full time. And finally my brother’s best friend since fourth grade. He’s written two novels, one a medical mystery, and is attending the conference with me in April. (He attended last year and had an extremely positive experience. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for the both of us.) In fact, he’s already read five chapters, but here is the problem some of the revisions I need to do are in the chapters he’s already read. I don’t want to ask him to re-read, although he’ll be lost in the story if he doesn’t. Lesson learned, don’t ask people too early. If you are wondering about my husband, well, he doesn’t really read my genre and while he is suportive about all the time I spend on my craft, I think it would be torture for him to do it. So, I haven’t asked and he hasn’t volunteered. What about you?
Are you going to have them read the whole thing? Also, are you an actor?? Your life sounds awesome. I always wanted to go to NYC to see the sights and the shows. The sad thing is I’ve seen Paris, Rome, Athens, and a bunch of Islands, but never New York.