Step One Complete

Early this morning I completed the first draft of my novel. Well, maybe draft isn’t the best word. At least not a rough draft. It’s much closer to a finished product than a rough draft. I am now staring down the barrel of a long and exhausting self-editing process before I submit this to anyone for potential publishing. I have the story done and I am relatively pleased with the outcome. Now comes the daunting task of tweaking the details. Adding and removing sections to help with the flow will not be the most fun, but it is a necessary part of the process.

I began writing this novel on November 8th. It is now January 10th. It took roughly two months, which for some is a really short amount of time. For others, such as established authors, this might be too long. For me, it was just right. I wrote when the ideas came and when my children gave me some peace and quiet. That usually meant writing late at night into the early morning hours.

This is my first attempt at writing a novel of any kind. The book I self-published on Amazon was a non-fiction journal of my departure from religion. This book is a little bit different. It is a horror/thriller novel involving some unbelievable characters…wait a second. Never mind. It’s exactly like religion. (at least the religion I was a part of) 🙂

I was shooting for a minimum of 80,000 words with the expectation that my long-windedness would push it closer to 100,000. I ended up at 83,384 words. I was a little surprised at the lower word count, but it is still within the target range of words that publishers look for, especially with new authors. Now remember, this is before I go back through and make any changes. I may end up adding a little more. I don’t see adding 10 or 15k more words, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I exceed 85,000 words when all is said and done.

I will be taking my time with the next step in the process in order to have a finished product I can be proud of. So far, despite pleas from my teenager, only my wife has read it. She is a huge reader of books in this genre and I was able to keep her interested. That’s a good sign. We’ll see what happens. For now, I’m just one step closer to the goal line. But it is a long race.

I’ll keep everyone posted as I move further along. Thank you to all who have encouraged me. Just know that it’s your fault I went through with this. 🙂