Sticking a sword in it....

[j_cheney]

...and calling it done.

The ROUGH draft of The Devil in the Details, at 93.3K. ROUGH. REALLY ROUGH.

This will come out at 100K when I rewrite it, I believe, but I'm putting it aside for a while. I didn't pin on a purty ending, primarily because it's so rough that I suspect most of the last chapter will end up being trashed anyway. Thank heavens I have permission to write terrible first drafts.

This is officially my fourth completed novel....so am I not supposed to sell this one?

Getting back to short stories for the next couple of weeks, plus the plot bunny's epic.

Comments

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

Congrats on finishing!

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Muchly relieved. ;o)

[alaneer.livejournal.com]

Congrats on getting the first draft done.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

I'll put it awaqy for a couple of months now. I may hate it when I get back to it ;)

[marshall-payne.livejournal.com]

Congrats! 100k is a perfect length.

This is officially my fourth completed novel....so am I not supposed to sell this one?

Yes! The first couple (or three) are for the bottom drawer, so this will be the "first" novel for the world to see. ;o)

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

To be honest, I've actually got #2 out doing the query thing. But it's pretty well done and tight. 1 and 3? Need massive reworking.

[marshall-payne.livejournal.com]

I nearly took my comment down as that wasn't good "advice" for everyone, especially not someone like you who knows what they're doing. I trunked my first four novels, but I wrote them over a six month period seven years ago as therapy to quit smoking. One of them, a mystery novel, I never even read after I typed The End, so it's probably pretty bad. The good news is I finally quit smoking, but not on the attempt where I wrote those "therapy" novels. ;o)

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

6 month period? WOW! (I just can't imagine writing that fast! That's amazing!)

Well, I've heard that it actually IS pretty good advice. I started off a bit older than most novellists, so that might give me an advantage.

#1 actually needs to be broken into 2 books, but I need to come up with a big plot event to stick into the first half (which is basically boring right now). Until I do, it will simply have to wait. And #3 is the sequel to #1, so it will have to wait even longer. (It's complicated.)

[marshall-payne.livejournal.com]

Thanks for sharing all that, J. Yes, getting a late start has its advantages.

I think I told you I tried my hand at writing SF back in the 80s before deciding to focus on being a musician fulltime. But in 2000 I wanted to attempt writing fiction again, specifically novels. Writing four novels in six months isn't as amazing as it sounds. My problem back then was that I was writing 60k novels like were popular years ago. I had a hard time sustaining a longer narrative length. Finally figure it out for #5, which was 100k, and then #6 and #7 were 120K and 140k.

But those six months were fun. I'd type the end on one novel and the next day start the next one. I was brimming with ideas, if not much craft or technique yet. Still, I think I got a lot of bad writing out of my system. This sort of reminds me of Nano, which is happening this month. *sigh* I don't subscribe to the "turn off the internal editor" school anymore. I thought of making a post this week, "Just say no to nano!" but remembered I did something of the same thing back then so who am I to judge? But now my editor is always switched on. I really don't like to rewrite, so I try to get it at least close the first time around. :o)

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

By the time I get to the end of something this long, it's pretty sloppy. I always have to go back and reshape.

[displacedtexan.livejournal.com]

Good on ya for quitting the smoking thing. How they could ever have thought it was not bad for you (some of the old ads in Nat Geo mag just crack me up) is simply amazing.

[queenoftheskies.livejournal.com]

Woo-hoo!!!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Thanks ;o)

[tatterdamelion.livejournal.com]

Congrats! Few things feel better than typing, "The End."

:)

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'm very relieved ;o)

[jess-ka.livejournal.com]

Hey, Mazeltov!

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[gwyndolin.livejournal.com]

Woo! A jealous congratulations from me. I am envious of your 93k words.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Are you on the long side? Or the short? This is the shortest I've ever written.

My first went 153K. ::rolls eyes::

[gwyndolin.livejournal.com]

I'm on the 50 thousand words in and no end in sight side. :) Although my first drafts tend to be a little short, I don't think this one is going to be. At 50,000, I was exactly halfway through the outline, so I think I'm going to clock in at 100k. Just have to get there. One word at a time.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

I was working on one (that I've put to one side for now) that was doing the exact same thing. If I try to make it one book, it will be incredibly long. Sometimes that just seems to happen....(darn that plot bunny!)

[incandragon.livejournal.com]

Hip hip, HOORAY!! Very big congratulations to you! Happy snoopy dances for finishing!

(But really ... for first drafts, I think you're only allowed to stick a spork in it.)

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

True, this version certainly does NOT deserve sword sticking.

I'll go find a spork...

[melissajm.livejournal.com]

Woohoo! Congratulations!

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

THanks!

[sarah-prineas.livejournal.com]

Wow! Congratulations on finishing!

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It's latte time!

[kelly-swails.livejournal.com]

Yay! Congrats! Go have some wine or something. :)

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Down time ;o)

Thanks!

[vaughan-stanger.livejournal.com]

Well done!

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[orogeny.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!

This is the one where you sell it, and they say, "Oh, and lets buy all the others, too!"

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Ah, what a nice thought....

[babarnett.livejournal.com]

Congrats on finishing!

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

THanks!

[therinth.livejournal.com]

Hey congrats Jeannette, that's huge! :D

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Thanks!