ecstaticWords: 6,980
Total words: 70,060
Reason for stopping: finished THE ENTIRE BOOK. YES, IT'S DONE.
Music: largely, musical soundtracks.
Lilly: conked out on my bed.
First draft stats:
Pages: 246
Chapters: twenty-eight
Started: July 21, 2005
Finished: August 11, 2008
I think this may be the longest shortest first draft I've ever written -- the book is less than half the length of Newsflesh, yet took over a year longer to finish. I blame this on the tragic fact that Lycanthropy and Other Personal Issues kept getting relegated to the literary status of 'other woman' -- the book I really loved, yet turned to only after I'd finished my obligations to more 'important' commitments. If I were Clady, I would have long since tracked me down and kicked me in the teeth, that's all I'm saying here.
The bulk of the work on this book was done in the past eight months.
I still intend to go back and flesh out some of the earlier sequences a bit more thoroughly now that I know what my overall pacing looks like; because of that, and a few continuity adjustments, I'm planning to declare a 'draft 1.5' and add to the text, before cutting ten percent with draft two. It makes sense if you're me (and is actually how I managed Newsflesh, which turned out to have two missing chapters). But it's done. It's finally done. And I think it's a better book for having taken the time, because I've learned so much in the past few years.
It's done. Tonight, I will sleep the sleep of the just and the joyous.
It's done.
August 13 2008, 06:59:46 UTC 8 years ago
August 13 2008, 16:39:05 UTC 8 years ago