I finished up the first draft of my new WIP last week. It took me almost exactly 4 months from start to finish, although there was a total of three weeks during that time where I got no writing done on the manuscript at all because I was in a class (three classes, to be exact) or had house guests.
When it’s done, I expect my new manuscript to run around 100K pages, but this is my fourth novel, and I’m learning that I write my first draft extremely lean. I’m more concerned about getting the story actions on the page than paying attention to descriptions, emotions, or thematic elements. Like I did with FATE and GLAMOUR, I developed a pretty detailed outline for AURUM, but I also deviated quite a bit from the plan.
Finishing up the first draft of AURUM is something worth celebrating. I feel good. I plan to let the manuscript sit for a few weeks while I write a few short stories and finish up writing the follow-on novel to FATE.
In the meanwhile, I’m going to go to the movies, do a little retail therapy, and celebrate the feeling of having written.
