weekly word count: yearly wrap up
Clearly, I have not bothered to update in the last few weeks. That does not mean I was not productive, however. Quite the opposite, in fact! By way of a few long writing afternoons in Starbucks, I -- dare I tell the internet -- finished the draft of my novel.
Wowzers.
It's funny, because I'm so used to berating myself for how I should be working on my novel whenever I've got anything else open (which is nearly always) but now I... don't have to. Because wow. Hey. That thing. It's done.
The thing is, I've finished first drafts before. I did Nano a few times, so those were some novellas, terrible as they were. There was High School Fantasy Part 1, and High School Fantasy Part 2: College, though that was never actually finished. There was the middle grade novel I wrote during my senior year, because apparently I deal with stress by ignoring it and losing myself in fiction. There was the real version of a Nano project in... 2008? I finished that draft, too. There's Tart, which I co-wrote. So no, first drafts are not my problem.
This is a second draft. Like, a complete one.
It's got plenty to fix, believe me. But... all the ways in which my first drafts are broken? The things I always start to fix and never have the patience for? Those are fixed. The structure is in place; the right events happen; the characters have arches and their interactions happen to a purpose. There's rising action and a climax and everything. It's still messy, but now it's a messy manuscript, not just a big messy... thing.
Just about every other year since college, I've set a writing goal of finishing a manuscript, polishing it, and querying. Obviously I didn't make it quite that far. But for the first time, it looks I could set that as a goal in the upcoming year, and not have it be a pipe dream. I've never made it this far before.
I just... wow.
Anyway. After all of my navel gazing the last time I bothered to update, I went through and totaled up my word count for the year, minus all the work on the novel. Including tons of stuff that was either deleted or just never finished or for whatever reason never saw the light of day, in 2011 I wrote -- drumroll please --
213,300 words, give or take.
Man. No wonder I have carpal tunnel.
Wowzers.
It's funny, because I'm so used to berating myself for how I should be working on my novel whenever I've got anything else open (which is nearly always) but now I... don't have to. Because wow. Hey. That thing. It's done.
The thing is, I've finished first drafts before. I did Nano a few times, so those were some novellas, terrible as they were. There was High School Fantasy Part 1, and High School Fantasy Part 2: College, though that was never actually finished. There was the middle grade novel I wrote during my senior year, because apparently I deal with stress by ignoring it and losing myself in fiction. There was the real version of a Nano project in... 2008? I finished that draft, too. There's Tart, which I co-wrote. So no, first drafts are not my problem.
This is a second draft. Like, a complete one.
It's got plenty to fix, believe me. But... all the ways in which my first drafts are broken? The things I always start to fix and never have the patience for? Those are fixed. The structure is in place; the right events happen; the characters have arches and their interactions happen to a purpose. There's rising action and a climax and everything. It's still messy, but now it's a messy manuscript, not just a big messy... thing.
Just about every other year since college, I've set a writing goal of finishing a manuscript, polishing it, and querying. Obviously I didn't make it quite that far. But for the first time, it looks I could set that as a goal in the upcoming year, and not have it be a pipe dream. I've never made it this far before.
I just... wow.
Anyway. After all of my navel gazing the last time I bothered to update, I went through and totaled up my word count for the year, minus all the work on the novel. Including tons of stuff that was either deleted or just never finished or for whatever reason never saw the light of day, in 2011 I wrote -- drumroll please --
213,300 words, give or take.
Man. No wonder I have carpal tunnel.