Done and done
yay! congratulations on getting to the end of bard wars, el davebot. you totally rule! give yourself some credit already!
Yay, no more wordcounts...I must admit when I finished the first one of 6 or 7 chapters of my thesis I let everyone know I'd written 10353 words, but them was quality words - you bet. I'm also theoretically writing to a deadline, but it passed so long ago I'm quite relaxed about it now.
By Anonymous, at
4:59 PM
Hey, well done.
By Anonymous, at
7:07 PM
Woohoo! Yay! Dave Rocks! Hurrah!
Ted - that was a tired, oblique reference to the quite common "Ah, if I changed Nonsensical Scene X back in Chapter N-2 so that Character M did something different, then the scene I'm writing now would actually make sense, but I'm not going back and changing stuff so bugger it" phenomenon.
Sunday, August 22, 2004
The final two chapters of “Bard Wars” are done. It's finished. You can read it here, if you want to.
So there it is, my first draft of my first novel, 103000 words or so. At the moment I'm finding it a little difficult to see past its numerous flaws and give myself any credit just for finishing it. But I did realise to my surprise this morning that I don't feel now as if I never need to do this again. I've been nursing the suspicion that I would get to the end of this thing and do my usual dilettante trick of telling myself that “I've done that, I know as much as I ever need to about writing a novel, what's next?” [Insert list of half-competencies accumulated during a lifetime of modest achievement here].
So yeah, more writing to come. I probably won't serialise any future efforts online. While that was a useful self-motivating trick, the quality suffered enormously. I flatter myself that there is a better book in me than this draft. Let's face it, this probably isn't going to be the one that lets me give up my day job.
Happily, what it does mean for Lexifab is an end to the endless blogs about word counts. I think that's cause for celebration in itself.
5 smartarse remarks
Post a Comment
5 Comments:
i'm mildly curious as to your aside on serialisation on-line causing the quality to suffer - but i'm guessing you're referring to writing to deadline pressure ("expect to see chapter 18 at the Hour of the Disgruntled Vole on All Horrors Eve in the Year of the Fruitbat") rather than anything to do with the on-line part per se...?
as for your predictions of the end of blogging about word counts, it seems to me that national novel racing month is almost due to once again lurch threateningly over the horizon... not that Mr Enthusiasm [*cough*andrew] is likely to try to get you to commit - or should that be committed? - again, right?
but enough of that - congratulations again on finishing the draft. that's huge.
Jenny
Conventional wisdom says that writing a novel is the first step in getting a novel published, although the second step is widely considered to be "write another novel."
So - up for NaNo this year? ;)
Stu.
You'll write your romantic comedy this November, right?
Jenny - believe me, I'd dreading to have to commit to 100 K of quality words. As for the deadline, I'm almost vomiting with relief that I don't have to worry about it any more. Sustained stress and I don't play well together.
Stu - the way I see it is, okay, now I know I can actually finish a novel, the next question can I finish a good novel? Publication is a long-distant third phase I'm not thinking about just yet. Beers, on the other hand, have a sense of lurid immediacy about them...
Clam - *If* I do NaNoRaMo (thanks Ted), it'll be the romcom. That will depend on whether I have a decent outline done by then. And whether my wife will kill me if I say I'm going to spend another month locked in the study...
