Nathan Bransford - The Forums

Yaaaaaaaaa!

I just finished the last chapter of my first novel and am so pumped. I know I have a lot of work ahead of me - such as typing out my handwritten chapters and editing - but that can't dim the happiness I am feeling right now. I am estimating that in all, this book will be over 170k long, but short of 200k. I am super proud if it and cannot wait to dig in and get more done and get to polishing this thing to a golden glow!

Congratulations!

Just in time to really celebrate this Thanksgiving. Er, if you're American, that is.

Bravo, Kalthandrix! The writing world can sometimes be an echo chamber in which such achievements are taken for granted.

Contrary to popular opinion, most people do not have a book in them. Most who do do not even begin writing it. Most who begin do not finish. Finishers do number in the tens of thousands, but that's out of a population (in the USA) of 300 million people.

One small suggestion. When I changed from longhand to typed (computer) first drafts years ago, I was amazed at how much easier it was, both for composition and editing. Worth a thought for the next book.

Thanks for the kind words. I am super excited seeing as how I believe this will be about 170-200k when I get all my handwritten stuff in. Granted, I have noticed that a good number of my old chapters need much more work than those I have been writing recently, but it is all about the learning curve.

@ J. T. SHEA - yeah, I’m feeling you on the whole "ease of writing" thing. When I started, I was not that good at typing and all the errors and stuff I seen cropping up in Word was distracting, but with a paper and pencil I was able to let it all flow. Granted, I have written chapters 19-30 of my novel almost exclusively in Word, and will not go back to just doing longhand because it is a LOT of work transcribing my written word - I write small and get about 500 words per page...and pencil makes fade after a time making it even harder to read my own writing :D

Thanks again.

Unfortunately, I told Nathan that he would be the first agent I queried, but he is not in the game any longer :( ... but I think I will try going it alone and submit the novel to TOR when I complete my edits and redrafting of some elements.

Good luck with the editing. 170-200k seems a mite long... O_O

Yes, celebrate! Finishing your first draft the first time around is a major accomplishment. Congratulations.

Wow! That's a long book! Congratulations on finishing the first draft--it's always a relief to have everything finally down on paper.