wu-hooo - just passed the 20,000 word mark...

alfa beta

...and it feels good

spent the last six months twisting and turning a plot around in my head until I'd nailed it...

spent the last six months wondering how characters would develop, grow, interact and of course kill each other!! (yeah, yeah, it's a thriller...)

spent the last six months researching criminal law, court procedure, hacking and the internet's darker side...

and spent the last three weeks writing....

and for a first draft, hey some of it's not bad!!!

wish me luck for the next 80k folks

Das Kitty

Brilliant alfa_beta!

EileenG

Well done. Great work.

Gryphonboy

Awesome stuff!

Out of interest, what is a good word count for a novel?

alfa beta

about 90,000 ideally for a first novel

anything over 100,000 and you're starting to worry publishers on print cost grounds.

Once you become a world wide publishing phenomenon (gimme about three months) then you can stretch the word count as far as you want....

Gryphonboy

alfa beta wrote: »

about 90,000 ideally for a first novel

anything over 100,000 and you're starting to worry publishers on print cost grounds.

Once you become a world wide publishing phenomenon (gimme about three months) then you can stretch the word count as far as you want....

Wow, ok now I don't feel so great about my 40k first draft.
Need more cowbell.

Das Kitty

Gryphonboy wrote: »

Wow, ok now I don't feel so great about my 40k first draft.
Need more cowbell.

Depends on the genre. That might be perfect for certain e-book publishers. Don't pad it out for the sake of it if the story's finished.

EileenG

YA typically starts at about 50k, and 40k is fine for e-book.

Cillo rs200

Congrats!

alfa beta

progress report time

just nudged over the thirty k mark yesterday - getting a bit nervous as to how easily and how quickly the word count racks up - yet when I read what I've written the pace seems fine to me.

spose the best thing to do is keep writing the way I feel most comfortable and then think about editing things down a bit when I have a full first draft on paper...(thing is right now I don't see this story coming in under 130k and I don't want something as stoopid as word count to scupper my (undoubtedly slim) chances of finding a publisher....)

anyway - back to the task at hand - mid term break for the small fella this week - that'll slow me down a bit!

38Flowers

Congrats Alfa Beta. You're progress posts are very inspiring and motivating! I'm about 45,000 in at the moment.
Don't worry about writing too much, because if you're anything like me (now I'm a complete novice, mind) you'll be amazed at how much needs to come out when you start to edit. Keep up the good work! It's impressive and lovely to read somebody getting it done and determined to get there.:)

alfa beta

Nice one 38flowers - we're sorta hand in hand there at the mo - this weekend I tip-toed past the 45 k mark and also moved into what i currently consider 'part 2' of my story (I don't think that 'split' will stay in the final version but it was an important marker in my own mind)

At this stage I feel I'm about one-third of the way through a first draft and my mood has changed from 'can I do this?' to 'now I know I can do this but will it be any good?'

Unfortunately got a sick little boy in the house this week and a wife who's in the states somewhere, so my regular writing schedule has all fallen apart - still 50k would be a nice number to get to by next weekend. Fingers crossed.

Funny how important word count becomes as you write - I guess it's just the most tangible way of measuring what you're doing as you go.

Best of luck with your project 38Flowers.

Gryphonboy

alfa beta wrote: »

Unfortunately got a sick little boy in the house this week and a wife who's in the states somewhere, so my regular writing schedule has all fallen apart - still 50k would be a nice number to get to by next weekend. Fingers crossed.

Race ya! :P

alfa beta

Biiiiiiiiiiiig gap there since easter - no real reason - just other stuff happening.

Thankfully back on track in the last week or so

Now looking at stepping over the 60,000 word mark in the next day or two - which would probably tot up to about 200 pages of your standard printed novel

it feels big now - characters have formed (and hopefully stayed consistent) - plot is twisting and turning nicely - various bits of research have found their way into the story - but there's still a long way to go (as well as one key character I need to introduce at this point and run with all the way to the end).

For anyone who hasn't ever tried to write a novel, it's a mad thing to do. The process takes on this crazy (and slightly scary) momentum of its own. It really sucks you in and sometimes you find yourself thinking about it for hours at a time - pacing up and down the living room, drawing up scenarios in your mind, asking yourself if they'll fit, if they'll work practically, if they'll be believable, etc etc.....!!

I'm also surprised at how writing a novel feels sorta similar to reading reading one - obviously it's slower and a hell of a lot more difficult, but it's strangely similar - I really want to find out what happens and that's what keeps driving me back to write it!

All in all, a very interesting experience (would love more than anything if I could do it full time!)

So that's it for the moment folks - next post from me in this thread will probably be around the 80-90k mark.....(eek)

Rubecula

I am seriuosly impressed. Very well done.

alfa beta

well, would you look at that....just nudged over the hundred thousand mark

100,012 - that's what it says at the bottom of my 'pages' doc now

kinda mad really!!

still looking at topping out around 130k - but just want to get first draft finished now so I can go back and start polishing and editing

great experience so far - wonder will anyone ever read those words - fingers crossed they will...

EileenG

Great going.

Get the finished and then you can start cutting.

rachblue

Wow well done alfa beta. I envy you! I'm just starting out and I've never tried to actually write a novel before. I had an idea months ago and wrote a couple of pages but left it for months and I'm only really getting back to it now. I'm only starting to write on a daily basis in the last week or so and I want to keep it up. I just want to write till the story is finished and then go back over it but I'm terrified that its going to be a load of rubbish. I don't know if I should show someone what I've written so far to get at least one opinion or if I should wait till its finished and I've fixed it up. You really have inspired me to think that maybe I really can do this. I hope everything goes great with the book and please keep us updated on the status of it. Thanks!!

ciaranmac

Keep it up, first drafts are supposed to be rubbish... at least, so I've heard.

Me, I haven't got a rubbish first draft because I haven't got a first draft yet.

hcass

Well done - I'm sooooo jealous!

[-0-]

Congrats.