Last night Pola asked “Do you want to watch a DVD with me?” I wasn’t feeling well, and suspected she wanted to watch the Sex and the City (while I’m more of a City and the Stars kind of guy).<\/p>\n
So I sat in bed with my laptop and plugged away at my novel. I didn’t realise when Pola put on another film, so I ended up writing far longer than I intended. After about 3000 words I not only reached the end of the story, but wrote the last two chapters which I’d intended to be some kind of epilogue.<\/p>\n
Ok, let me clarify; the story isn’t a finished novel, but I reached the end. There is going to be a LOT of editing on this one. The first novel I wrote was set on Earth, and even though it was set (mostly) in the future, I didn’t have to do a whole lot of what science fiction authors call “world building”. The current novel is set on an alien planet and has non-21st century levels of technology, and there are lots of small plot points that rely on other small things, with details spread throughout the narrative. <\/p>\n
As I was writing I’d notice something didn’t fit with something else I’d already written, or that I needed a new character, or could combine two other characters, or that this one piece of technology stood out too much and needed to be replace by another… but when I made the change, I didn’t go back and rewrite the previous material to fit with the new, I just continued to write as though the later facts were true and the earlier facts had already been changed.<\/p>\n
This means that if someone else was to read the story now it would make zero sense. For example, in the opening chapters I introduce two characters who, in the planning stages, were going to play a major role in the last thirty or forty pages. But as I was writing I completely forgot about them, and their roles were filled by other characters. So they need to be edited out. Also the shape of the main camp changes quite a bit from the original description compared to what I have in my mind now, at the end of the writing process.<\/p>\n
What I’m going to have to do is read the entire thing and make a whole new list of facts about the world that are in place at the end, and then go through again and make sure they are consistent from the beginning.<\/p>\n
A final note: this story, at only 35,000 words, feels much more like a novella than my first long work of fiction. The word length is going to grow a lot during the edits though, as I on the first draught I was concentrating mostly on plot and action, with very little description, and not much characterization either.<\/p>\n
I wanted to write about 45,000 words in 30 days. I took two weeks off from writing in the middle, and finally settled on between 1000 and 1500 words per day as the least stressful workload. I managed 36,776 words in 28 days, averaging 1,313 per day. Along the way I added 1782 words of non-story notes, for a final 34,994 words. My novel writing software says that’s about 145 pages in an average paperback format.<\/p>\n
The final breakdown is here:<\/p>\n
\r\nDay:\tDate:\tTarget:\tBehind:\tCatch:\tSessions:\t\tToday:\tRunning total:\r\nFri\t23\t1500\t-467\t-533\t1967\t\t\t1967\t1967\r\nSat\t24\t3000\t-343\t60\t1376\t\t\t1376\t3343\r\nSun\t25\t4500\t563\t873\t594\t\t\t594\t3937\r\nMon\t26\t6000\t1583\t1023\t480\t\t\t480\t4417\r\nTue\t27\t7500\t930\t-675\t1024\t1129\t\t2153\t6570\r\nWed\t28\t9000\t332\t-645\t1349\t749\t\t2098\t8668\r\nThu\t29\t10500\t-1991\t-2468\t1839\t1984\t\t3823\t12491\r\nFri\t30\t12000\t-491\t1413\t0\t\t\t0\t12491\r\nSat\t31\t13500\t-263\t148\t580\t692\t\t1272\t13763\r\nSun\t1\t15000\t1237\t1487\t0\t\t\t0\t13763\r\nMon\t2\t16500\t-90\t-1407\t2827\t\t\t2827\t16590\r\nTue\t3\t18000\t-130\t-126\t1540\t\t\t1540\t18130\r\nWed\t4\t19500\t-555\t-539\t1010\t915\t\t1925\t20055\r\nThu\t5\t21000\t910\t1430\t35\t\t\t35\t20090\r\nSat\t21\t22500\t2248\t1385\t162\t\t\t162\t20252\r\nSun\t22\t24000\t2684\t515\t1064\t\t\t1064\t21316\r\nMon\t23\t25500\t4184\t1692\t0\t\t\t0\t21316\r\nTue\t24\t27000\t4392\t430\t1026\t266\t\t1292\t22608\r\nWed\t25\t28500\t3452\t-777\t1135\t1305\t\t2440\t25048\r\nThu\t26\t30000\t3880\t644\t1072\t\t\t1072\t26120\r\nFri\t27\t31500\t4005\t376\t1375\t\t\t1375\t27495\r\nSat\t28\t33000\t4544\t877\t961\t\t\t961\t28456\r\nSun\t1\t34500\t6044\t2068\t0\t\t\t0\t28456\r\nMon\t2\t36000\t6536\t934\t1008\t\t\t1008\t29464\r\nTue\t3\t37500\t6573\t547\t556\t907\t\t1463\t30927\r\nWed\t4\t39000\t6540\t557\t1533\t\t\t1533\t32460\r\nThu\t5\t40500\t6925\t1170\t1115\t\t\t1115\t33575\r\nFri\t6\t40500\t3724\t-1145\t15\t3186\t\t3201\t36776\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\tremoving notes\t\t\t-1782\t\t\t-1782\t34994\r\n<\/pre>\nI need to start coming up with working titles for my fiction. “Edward” and “Monster Story” are fine for file names, but don’t really portray what I want about the stories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last night Pola asked “Do you want to watch a DVD with me?” I wasn’t feeling well, and suspected she wanted to watch the Sex and the City (while I’m more of a City and the Stars kind of guy). … Continue reading