tblakebraddy

God, I’d almost forgotten about 43 things! I’m still working on the novel, and it’s going well. I hit my first real bit of actual, true writer’s block last week, and it bled over into this week some, but I’ve managed to beat it back down into its dark place. The novel is well over 90,000 words now – it’s closing in on 100,000 – but the good news is that I’ll be done soon. I’ll just have to edit the beast down to about 80,000 words (which is the goal for length). It’ll need a good spit and polish, but this book has turned out a hundred times better than I could have imagined.

I finally hit 80,000 words…unfortunately, the first draft still isn’t done. I underestimated how long the denouement and other third act elements would take to flesh out, but it’s all right. I’m optimistic. It might be another ten to twenty thousand words, but that only means I’ll have plenty to cut out for the second draft, which I plan on being a slender 75,000 words.

I’m still chuggin’ along on the book, nearing 70,000 words as we speak. The first draft with be at least 10,000 words longer than I had first anticipated, putting it up to at least 90,000 words, but I plan to cut a lot with the second draft. The first act drags quite a bit, so I’ll have to go in with the pruning shears and get rid of some of that flowery language that slows it down!