I've only gone and written a bloomin' novel! Options

[Mata]

After two and a half months of writing a bit over a thousand words a day, I've written the 100,052 word first draft of my novel!

Last night I stayed up late working on the final chapter, then this afternoon I wrote the last 1,200 words, finishing it off.

I'm really happy with it, and even if it's rubbish (which I hope it isn't) I'm still immensely happy to have managed it. I've only had a few days off from writing, for Christmas, job interviews, and the like, so it's going to be a bit weird without that fixture in my day.

Tomorrow I'll export it into Word and go through to get the worst offenders for spelling and punctuation, then I'm going to force myself to leave it for a few weeks before reading it and starting on the first edit.

I never really had a 'woo! My thesis is really finished' moment, because it was such an iterative process that it was hard to say when it was really done, so today I'm going to have a few glasses of something bubbly and be very happy about what I've achieved.

(And try not to be too hungover for an interview tomorrow!)

Woohoo!

[Cath Sparrow]

Yay! Congratz Mata I'll look forward to it being published so I can read it.

[snooodlysnoosnoo...]

Cool! Now you just need to get it published so it can become the next Harry Potter and you can buy a small Caribbean island for us all to live on free of the torment of real life!!

[gothictheysay]

Congrats Mata! I hope one day to stand in equal to you. That's quite an achievement.

[Izzy]

Way to go! When you get it published, make sure it sells in the US!

[michael1384]

Oooooh! What's it called?

[{Gothic Angel}]

Woot! Congrats. I realise I should know this, but what kind of novel?

[Smiler]

Well done sir, well done indeed. They say that everyone has at least one novel inside them, may this be the first of far more than that!

Now, listen to your own advice and lock it up for a couple of weeks, and let your mind break from it a bit before tampering.

Have a good drink and good luck for tomorrow

[SPEAKERfortheLOS...]

Congrats Mata!

You have now entered that state of life where you either become a (generally) starving author or your work consumes your soul...

Choose wisely.

[Phyllis]

Yay Mata! Wow, that seems like it went really quickly given your word count around the time I was doing NaNoWriMo. Of course, I say that since I wasn't joining in on the writing this time.

Still, it's impressive!

[Mata]

Oooooh! What's it called?

The working title is 'Wire Down'. It was the title of a work that I begun around Easter 2006 but only got to around 17k words through before realising I hadn't thought it through properly. I read a few books about constructing narratives, spent three months (again around Easter) reworking the plot, reused the world (technology, setting, etc.) and came up with something that worked.

The title works on lots of levels in relation to the plot, so I really hope to keep it.

You have now entered that state of life where you either become a (generally) starving author or your work consumes your soul...

Wait a sec... Are those my only options? Can I choose option 'c', where I become reasonably well off and live happily writing every morning before animating and drawing comics in the afternoon?

Thanks to everyone who joined it with NaNoWriMo this year (and Cand, who counts as an accessory to the fact): your support and camaradery really helped get me rolling.

Smiler: I've got two days to get the basic spelling and punctuation sorted then I'm going to lock it away for at least two weeks before I edit. I'm really excited to reread it, but I'm going to force myself to wait.

Even if it turns out to be a badly written novel, I'm still very happy to have got to this point: a novel is a novel. They do say that everyone has one novel inside them, and I think I've owed this to myself for several years.

Thanks for the congrats everyone. I'm going to give it time to breathe then work my butt off editing and then chasing an agent so you all can read it.

[elphaba2]

Hey hey! Nice one!

*explodes a Congratulations bomb in the middle of the thread*

That's amazing though; I never thought so many words (between the thesis and the novel) could hang around inside one person.

Hooray for you!

*T-shirt gun, yellow confetti*

[patback87]

That's awsome I have a hard time writing a 10 page screenplay so a novel, good work! I'm excited for when it get released here in America, lol.

[Phyllis]

Thanks to everyone who joined it with NaNoWriMo this year (and Cand, who counts as an accessory to the fact)

Wait, I am confused. I participated in and finished NaNoWriMo, how am I an accessory to the fact? Is my brain not giving me the right definition for accessory? Hmm...if that sounds like a stupid question, keep in mind that I'm ill again so I'm allowed to be dumb right now.

I and your army of ducks say that you can certainly choose option 'c'. We have wings and mucus, and we dare anyone to contradict us!

[EvilSpork]

I envy your dedication. You're an inspiration to me. Or something.

Either way, good job! Congrats! And all that.

I know I sound sarcastic and am mildly spammy, but I have to show my appreciation and what not! I promise, sarcasm is at a zero.

[Mata]

You're the one confusing me Cand:

Yay Mata! Wow, that seems like it went really quickly given your word count around the time I was doing NaNoWriMo. Of course, I say that since I wasn't joining in on the writing this time.

Now I think about it, yes, you were writing too, but that post gave me the impression that you weren't and were just supporting others on there.

You know, I really expected it to be more difficult, which is why I'm scared of the editing - I suspect that could be the really tricky bit!

[Novander]

I don't know how I missed this thread; I should venture out of Media more often, I guess.

Congratulations Mata, I look forward to reading it. Let's say due to some mass temporary insanity no publisher wants to take it, would you consider doing Print On Demand from somewhere like Lulu.com?

[Phyllis]

Now I think about it, yes, you were writing too, but that post gave me the impression that you weren't and were just supporting others on there.

Oh! I meant during December, after NaNoWriMo was over. I took a break from writing after I finished my NaNoWriMo, and it seemed like your word count went up really fast during my break. I guess I didn't specify that since I went on and on in the NaNoWriMo thread about how I wasn't touching that beast I wrote until January.

I was saying that to me, it felt like I blinked during my break and then you suddenly reached 100,000 words. It probably didn't seem quite as instant to you since you were the one doing the writing during that time. Make more sense now?

[Daria]

Congratulations on finishing it
As would everyone, I'm sure, I would love to read it!

[CrazyFooIAintGet...]

wow, its finished already?! congrats!

I hope I get to read it sometime

[Moosh]

Excellent stuff Mata, well done!

If any of the publishers give you trouble, tell them you're gonna get at least a couple of dozen sales just from the people on here.

[Mata]

Let's say due to some mass temporary insanity no publisher wants to take it, would you consider doing Print On Demand from somewhere like Lulu.com?

That would only be an option after I had written a few novels that hadn't been successful. Sometimes no-one will take your first novel, but after you've got another one published you can get it released. Like sharing parts on the internet - if you self-publish then you'll have a hard time getting a publisher to go for it afterwards.

I was saying that to me, it felt like I blinked during my break and then you suddenly reached 100,000 words. It probably didn't seem quite as instant to you since you were the one doing the writing during that time. Make more sense now?

I see. I guess with the run up to Christmas it seemed for everyone else that December flew past, but I was steadily plugging in around 8-9k words per week, so the book went up a lot during that time.

In the last three days I wrote nearly 7k! It got very exciting for me and I couldn't wait to see what the characters would do.

CM: Having a website which still gets 16k visitors per month, looking at 250k pages, might help persuade a publisher that I can leverage a fan base. It might not, but I doubt it will do any harm.

[Phyllis]

In the last three days I wrote nearly 7k! It got very exciting for me and I couldn't wait to see what the characters would do.

Woohoo! I love it when that happens.

How did the interview that you had the day after you finished go, by the way?

[I_am_the_best]

Wow that is hugely impressive! Do we get even a clue of what it's about?

[Mata]

How did the interview that you had the day after you finished go, by the way?

The interview went well, thank you. I'm currently unsure if it's the right project for me so we'll see what happens there.

Wow that is hugely impressive! Do we get even a clue of what it's about?

It's a post-cyberpunk novel, so it's got butch-but-troubled men, kick-arse women, computers, secrets and memories, and a fair bit of violence, all set in a world where it's very dirty and rains at narratively convenient moments.