23 May 2014

Endings and Beginnings

Lots of big news! I know I haven't blogged in forever since the A to Z Challenge ended. Lots of reasons for that, I suppose. I'm hoping to blog lots and lots in the near future, possibly even every day. We shall see.

First off, I finished my second draft! Woo! It doesn't feel quite as triumphant as finishing the first draft, but then again, the first draft took me two and a half years to complete, so it was a big accomplishment. But anyway, I finished up the last chapter yesterday afternoon. 142 pages, 82,744 words, and 27 chapters. I guess a lot changed structurally since the first draft only had 20 chapters and 70,900 words. I know I cut a lot of the original chapters down to make the scene transitions less choppy, but I'm not entirely sure where the giant increase in the word count came from. I'll have to look into it.

Side note! If you read all of my silly facts in my 100th post, you'll know that the first draft has 196 f-bombs. Well, I did a search on the second draft and there are...drum roll please...188! Actually, I thought it would be more. I guess I'm learning restraint. I did try to cut the ones that didn't seem necessary. But hey, the narrator is a fifteen-year-old boy, it's gonna pop up now and then.

Other big news! I put in my two weeks notice at work on Tuesday. Ah! It's scary but exciting. Two days after my last day of work, I'll be going to Las Vegas with my fiance (no, we're not getting married). It should be a lot of fun. I'm bringing my second draft with me to edit on the plane, and lots and lots of books to read in front of the pool.

I hope to be querying my book within a few months and am going to try publishing smaller pieces and maybe getting some freelance work. I'm really excited for what the future is going to bring.

3 comments:

  1. Congratulations on finishing your second draft! It always seems like the second draft takes more work than the first.

    I think you have me beat with that number of f-bombs! lol

    Have fun in Las Vegas!!

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  2. Congrats! I'm excited for your quitting and living the writing life- I'll live it vicariously through you! =)

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  3. 188 F-bombs, eh? Sounds like a little more pruning is in order, unless you want the focus of the story to be on the F-bombs that the characters drop and not the story itself.

    Good luck on the career change. I think it's better to try it when one is young as opposed to being relatively old.

    Father Nature's Corner

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