Progress

I've felt a compulsion to include the reader in this journey of writing a novel, but so far I don't feel there's been much inclusion. I've posted excerpts (which are now out-of-date) and a few general, sweeping thoughts on writing, but I've realised anyone wondering when they can read this thing is completely in the dark. He's the cold, hard facts.

I have 72,759 words written, almost 8,000 more than I had at the end of the first draft. Interestingly enough, this is the opposite of what I expected to happen as I edited. I anticipated wanting to cut away big sections, as that's what I'd been led to believe editing was. In reality, I was happy with the general structure of the story and the gist of my passages was spot on. What I needed was clarity and embellishment, and that's ended up increasing my wordcount.

The raw numbers are as such:

72,759 words

334 pages

30 chapters

3 of those chapters didn't exist in the first draft, and 2 of those are right at the end. The ending was something I initially wanted to change completely, feeling I had totally failed to capture what I had intended. Again, the reality was that the ending was close to spot-on and what I needed was to build the tension around the ending, to raise the stakes one last time. I feel I've done that now.

I've completely finished the main editing pass up to chapter 11, which interestingly enough makes for 111 edited pages. The last two chapters have by far and wide been the hardest to clean up and fix so far. From here on out, I expect the work to get easier and easier. It's been interesting, I must say, that in re-reading the piece I've been able to see how I improved as a writer as my manuscript went on.

How long until I'm done? I don't know. I really don't. I would like to say just a few months, but it took me 2 months to finish up chapter 10 and I have no idea if that will happen again. I want to have it finished before the year is out, and everything I do will be with that goal in mind.

Wish me luck.

Or don't, whatever.

Raising the Dead

It's been a long, long time since I've posted here, and I daresay I've had good reason to stay quiet. I've been a busy man, and busy men don't blog. Why write a post now then? Well, I felt like shouting into the void again. Whereas before my posts here were a self-deprecating croon, this time it's a fanfare of achievement. I may be tooting my own horn here, but there's traffic and no-one else around to toot for me.

'So what's been happening, Pixie?' I hear you cry with anticipation. I'm teasing you, drawing it out. All you want is the sweet release of information. Well, let me slake your thirst ever so slightly. I finished the first draft of Maiden Voyage a few months back. 'Aww, is that all?' you whine. Now now, I can't have you fully quenched just 2 paragraphs in. The first draft of Maiden Voyage was completed late last year, clocking in at 65,000 words and just over 300 pages. The first editing pass included some sparing structural shifts and 2 shiny new chapters, bringing it to just over 70,000 words.

Where am I now then? Well after finishing the draft I spent a long time avoiding the piece entirely. Perhaps I needed to step away from my fictional world and look at it again as a reader. Whatever it was, I was eventually able to return to Maiden Voyage and fix a series of errors with layout and grammar. 'But Pixie', you whinge, 'that's not where you are now, that's were you were a few months ago.' Shut the fuck up, reader, I'm getting there. If I gave you the whole story in the first sentence I wouldn't be a very good author would I?

Around the beginning of the year I signed up to a frankly excellent writing course. I had already taken the introductory course, which spanned 8 weeks in the latter half of 2013, and had learned little. Why take the follow-up course then? Well, when you're around writers and talk for 3 hours on a Thursday night about writing, you tend to go home and write. Did I pay $5,000 to stay motivated to write? Of course not, I paid to learn from the best. Writing was a side-effect.

As a part of this course I was paired up with a mentor. I was lucky enough to be placed under the temporary tutelage of Fiona Kidman, possibly the country's most prolific author. It is with some shame that I admit I had to google her when I first read the name, totally oblivious of her laudable works. With the help of Fiona, I was steered in the right direction for the remainder of my editing work.

So that's where I am now, a third of the way through completing Maiden Voyage. The piece currently stands at just under 73,000 words and fills 334 pages. I have a sequel planned, and others within the same world idly being cooked up in my mind as the days go by. When I finish this editing pass, I'll likely sweep once more for grammar's sake and start shipping copies off to publishers. Have I written a bestseller? Probably not. But fuck you, I wrote a book, what the fuck did you do with your year?