Well, the novel stands at 77K words and is within a hair of being finished. This first draft will be about 80K, give or take a couple thousand words, which was the goal. Kinda creepy that I wanted to write about 80K words, didn’t really know where the story was going to go, and looks like I’ll be finishing pretty much right on that number. I’m fairly sure the next draft will be longer. How much longer, I’m not sure. The good news is that I know how it ends and there shouldn’t be any more surprises, so I just need to write it.

And man, has this been a learning experience. A few premature musings about the process:

* I wonder how much what I was reading came out in what I was writing. My suspicion? A lot. I think parts of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell bled through, even though the books are complete opposites. Magic—how it’s done, what it looks like, etc.—are at the core of both. I can only hope that my version is somewhere near as interesting as Ms. Clarke’s. The other book I’ve been reading, Regeneration is largely about repressed emotions, heroism, and Freudian psychology. My novel was always going to hit on these themes, but Ms. Barker’s book turned out to be a great companion piece to get me thinking about my book’s plot a bit differently.

* I wonder how much what I was listening to came out in what I was writing. My suspicion? A lot. The book was a lot darker than I originally imagined. I wonder how much Elliott Smith has to do that as I got hooked on him at the same time, and it’s not cheerful music; rather somber and defeatist. So’s the book. I listened to quite a bit of moody Wilco too, and that didn’t hurt either.

* As stated, the book came out darker, less comic, and more graphically violent than I originally imagined. I thought it was primarily going to be about clashing cultures in the global city, but it’s much more about walking the dark and filthy corridors of heroism. The last chapter is flat out horror—very gruesome and very Machiavellian. Didn’t expect that.

* Having the first draft of a novel is great, but I have a feeling it’s like finishing the first quarter of a marathon. There is so much work to be done but, at the moment, I’m looking forward to it. Now that I actually know where the story goes, I can start shaping the early parts to point in that direction.

Overall, I feel pretty strongly that there’s all the makings for a good novel here. The open question is whether I can make it a good novel. I hope so.

But I can totally see how novel writing can be addictive. This has been so much longer and more twisty and complicated and frustrating and rewarding and surprising than short story writing. Short story writing is snipe hunting; novel writing is snipe herding.

Current Mood: All is a Blur |
Currently Listening To – Elliott Smith – “From a Basement on the Hill”