Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Now I can stop yammering about it.

I finished The Bell-Men last night. Somewhere along the line, the working title stuck and I think I like it as the real title. I'm taking suggestions for improvements, of course.

The word count ended at 91,063, although that's already changed a bit. Because what did I do a few hours after I typed THE END? I opened the file again and started rereading it. I told myself I was insane, but actually, it's an important step. I'm going to set the book aside until probably January, but my brain will be working on it quietly until then. I need to know the shape of the book--its pacing, the characterization, the plot, etc.--to get a better idea of what needs to be fixed. Until this final readthrough of the draft, I don't have a sense of its weaknesses.

This reading also gives me the opportunity for a very light editing pass. I'm making final name changes (Thomas is now Tomas, a minor character Robert became Kilian), adding a line or two here or there to fix the flow, taking out a line or two that seem redundant, eliminating adverbs and adjectives, fixing typos and grammatical bobbles, and so forth. I actually like doing this. It makes me feel like I wrote a real book.

Once I'm done, I can start thinking about Nano! Only a week and a half!

19 comments:

Aaron Polson said...

Huzzah! I hope the ice cream was especially delicious.

K.C. Shaw said...

Actually, it was kind of disappointing. I ate it anyway, though, because hey, ice cream!

Alan W. Davidson said...

Great news, KC. Now you can relax...except for that NaNo thing coming up.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations! I'm so happy for you! Kick back and just revel. And then prepare for NaNo. ;)

I like the title "The Bell-Men". It intrigues me.

-Mercedes

K.C. Shaw said...

Alan--I had to look up "relax" in the dictionary. I'd forgotten what it meant. :)

Mercedes--Thanks, I like it too. Simple and unusual.

Cate Gardner said...

Fantastic word count, and I love the title, though maybe without the 'the'... :D

Carrie Harris said...

Yay yay yay! I'm so impressed at your word count. And I still love the title.

K.C. Shaw said...

Cate--Hmm, no 'the' might make it better. I already know I want to title the (inevitable) sequel 'Bloodhound' and that would fit with it better.

Natalie--Huzzahs for everyone!

Carrie--Thanks! I just realized I actually did a 10k day yesterday without even noticing.

Jamie Eyberg said...

you are awesome!

Danielle Birch said...

Well done!

A week and a half until NaNo. WTF!

K.C. Shaw said...

Jamie--I might be just a little bit awesome. Thanks. :)

Danielle--I know, I can't believe there's only 11 days left! I'd panic, but I'm too tired.

Unknown said...

done done done! congrats

Richard said...

Oh! You said the magic "sequel" word and suddenly I'm more interested than ever. Now if only you'd try your hand at High Fantasy (or "crap" as you call it IIRC) then I think I'd be able to die happy.

Word verification: "pantlyse". I'm fairly sure that's naughty and involves lace or feminine hygiene, so I'm a little embarrassed to be typing it here at work. Sure hope HR isn't watching.

Richard said...

How about this for a story?
A man wants some kind of pie.
Pies, though, are illegal.
Plus they're hard to get.
You'd be an outlaw for even trying.

But he doesn't care.
I don't know why, in case you ask.
Rabbit would be best I think.
Troubles abound on is quest:
He's probably thrown in jail, and
Doomed to rot there.
About then someone offers him cake;
You take what you can get, eh?

K.C. Shaw said...

Illegal pies?! That's horrible! There's your conflict right there. :)

Of course I have to write a sequel. All fantasy novels have to have sequels. I even kind of know what this sequel is going to be about, although I don't plan to get into it until the first book is revised to my satisfaction (which will be about a million years).

High fantasy isn't so much crap as boring. Boring crap. I can't read it anymore so I definitely can't write it. Maybe one day I'll change my mind, but it will probably be when I'm old and senile. Oh wait, I already am. :)

Richard said...

Sigh. She missed the secret, encoded message in the pie post. Why would I post about pies, for crying out loud? Sheesh. :|

Would you consider the Lies of Locke Lamora high fantasy? I agree it could've been tightened up a bit, but I don't think it ever qualified as boring.

I'm not really into the "high" part either--just so long as it's immersive and has at least 600 pages per volume, preferably with at least a trilogy of volumes involved. Pagecount: it's what's for dinner.

K.C. Shaw said...

Okay, I'm an idiot! Lol, thanks. I thought you must be parodying something that I hadn't read, which made me feel vaguely stupid, but then again I figured it had to be something to do with my birthday because of course I always get a birthday pumpkin pie instead of cake.

Lies of Locke Lamora isn't high fantasy. High fantasy is a bunch of D&D characters saving the world by collecting quest items. Snore.

Diana said...

Congratulations on getting the first draft finished. :)

K.C. Shaw said...

Thanks! I keep thinking of scenes I need to go back in and include. Something tells me the revisions may start sooner than I intended.