And that's a wrap
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 12:16PM Hey, guess what I did last weekend! I finished the book #4 draft. I felt a lot of bittersweet emotions while I was writing the last scenes, but even as early as the next day, I felt really okay about finishing up. My recommendation to anyone writing a series is to plan on an epilogue. At the end of the last book, a whole bunch of shit has probably just gone down, and odds are the good guys came out on top, but still, everything feels raw and rather unsettled. Then you write that epilogue, putting it many years into the future, and everyone is content and happy and life has gone well, and you say, "Ah yes, this is what I wanted." Although when I was telling this to my partner, she said, "Yeah, you never read an epilogue where life has gone horribly wrong, do you?" So if anyone is up for really pissing off their readership, I dare you to do it. Have the good guys win in the end of the narrative. The future looks bright. And then just wreck it with the epilogue.
I'm not sure what else there is to say. Seems like there should be something else, doesn't there? How about some numbers?
The first draft ended up being 99,317 words and 86 days passed from when I started to when I finished, which ends up being 1,154 average words per day.
However, of those 86 days that passed, I only wrote on 56 of the days, which ends up being 1,773 average words per writing day.
However, some of those 56 days I only wrote once, and some of those 56 days I wrote twice. If you want to be technical, I had 68 writing "sessions", and that equals 1,460 average words per writing session.
The most words I ever wrote in one session was 3,320.
The most words I ever wrote in one day was 5,070.
The fewest words I wrote in one day was 137, but as that was something of an anomaly, the second fewest was 674 (this does not include the days where I indicated I wrote a few words because the previous day's work was scrapped and re-written, although on those days, the net gain of words was less).
At 99,317 words, this book is far and away the longest of the series. Approximate word counts for the other books are #1: 64,000. #2: 84,000. #3: 70,000. I think there is little doubt that book #4 will remain the longest, but whether it will remain as long as 99,000 is certainly up in the air.
Other news
Some of you are aware that I haven't heard much (er, anything really) from Bella Books since I signed the contract with them in late July (unless you count the arrival of my advance check in the mail). I did not pursue news from them because I wanted to finish book #4 before I did so. But now, I have done so! I'm going to write more about what's going on with book #1 next week, but I will tell you that it is slated to be published in September.
And that's all the news from here. Care to share anything about what you've been up to this past week?
Reader Comments (15)
HECK YEAH! THAT'S HOW IT IS DONE!!!
In the last week, I've:
- Sent out 18 review copies for book 3
- Caught up on 5 months' worth of bookkeeping
- Showered twice at the most (I'm gross! Why is my scalp so itchy?)
I am so happy for you to have brought the series to a close! Yes, I can think of a sad epilogue: the ending of Six Feet Under. Well, it was happy/sad.
I'm glad your characters live HEA (Happily Ever After)! I think after four books, they deserve it. The next stage, working with an editor, is going to be very exciting to hear all about!
Excellent news! Congratulations.
(Of course, I'm more excited about the September news, since that means I get to actually read something!)
(!)
I'm also looking forward to hearing about the process of working with an editor.
My week was pretty good too. I'm at the other end of the process, since I started posting a brand new story. First time I've started a new project in a while. In fact, except for one scene, the first part of the story is all new characters, too, which is unusual for me. Beginning a new story is always exciting.
Congratulations! What an accomplishment! You are a rock star, Sonje J.
As for me, I'm still mired in my draft. It feels like riding a bike through thick mud, but after reading Tamara's blog post about the 10K a day project, I feel the ground starting to dry and the possibility of speed in my future. We'll see.
Tamara, I'm not sure I would say that the epilogue of Six Feet Under was sad. I mean, everyone died, but it was perfect, and many of them lived very long, very good lives.
Anthony, Starting a new series with new characters! How exciting! I'm not sure when I'll be doing that again. I'm going to enjoy this break--except it's not exactly "a break" since I'll be doing massive amounts of editing as I try to manage this series. I'm looking forward to you reading book #1. I hope you like it!
Averil, I thought you had pretty much finished the first draft and are now working on the second, right? Good luck with 10k per day. It's not something I have an interest in trying, although I did find the 10k per day woman's approach to writing to be a useful prism through which to think about writing productivity.
Congratulations!! I am SO excited that you have a complete series on your hands, and that soon I will have it in mine. :)
As for a ruins-everything epilogue? CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.
(Maybe.)
Kristan, I'll probably be sending it to you in two-to-three weeks! Also, how intriguing that you would be willing to do that to your characters. I don't think I could.
Yes, this is a rewrite-slash-second draft. I need to add several scenes, so those are what I'll be working on this weekend. I hope to finish the rewrite within the next two weeks so I can move on to the final polish and FTF.
Wish me luck.
Whoop!! That's AWESOME, Sonje!!
Hmmm I'm going to post tonight about what I've been up to re: my book, but I'll save you the trouble of looking at my blog and tell you here. I finally finished all the added scenes and so I spent the weekend moving things around and re-chaptering the book. Funny, my book got longer by about 8,000 words, but the number of chapters got smaller. I think somehow I felt okay about putting in more scenes per chapter this go round than last...strange but there it is. Now I'm going back through to both try to get the new scenes up to the same edit-polish level as the rest of the book AND making sure I didn't leave in any old stuff that needed to come out. (In addition to adding some scenes, I took out a minor character, but mentions of him etc... were throughout the novel so I've had to make sure he's totally GONE.)
Anyyway, that's what I've been up to. I finished a "stage" of my book, but not a whole book like YOU!!!
I'm looking forward to your upcoming news...
M
Averil, From your blog post last Friday, I know that you are on a tear! Can't wait for your blog update about all your progress.
Melissa, I agree it's very tricky to remove characters. I've done it before. I'm not sure I agree with you that our manuscripts are in vastly different stages of being done though. I mean, you have a complete draft, right? That's what I've got. It's true that I don't tend to edit that heavily, and most of my editing is about removing, not adding, but a draft is a draft is a draft. Go, us!
So, is your release date September 1st? I am going to take a photo of myself buying your book in a store, assuming Bella has distribution to somewhere in Vancouver, maybe Little Sisters? Anyways. Good luck on your manuscript editing! May you be struck with brilliant but tiny changes while you are trying to sleep. (Ha ha that sounds like a curse ... the curse of being a writer.)
Tamara, I don't know of the specific date in September, but as soon as I do, I will let you know! I'm also not sure of the extent of their physical distribution of books to bookstores. My guess is that any bookstore can order Bella Books, so it's up to the bookstores. Tell this Little Sisters place to order my book!
If, however, they are totally lame and won't do it, you can take a picture of yourself opening up the amazon package that contains my book instead. :)
I'm going to take a photo of me reading it while eating a banana and making eye contact with the camera.
Tamara, I'm not sure a banana is the way to go. Perhaps a can of tuna?
Taco?
Taco, definitely. I am now officially expecting a picture.