Today I reached a milestone with my latest book! 150,000 words! I can actually believe that Muspell’s Sons is going to have a sequel!
Granted, they are 150,000 unedited words, and not all of the story is written down yet. I consider it a rough or first draft until I am reasonably happy with how the story flows–and right now, my ending is more like a collection of scribbled down scenes and ideas instead of, you know, an actual story.
But 150,000 words is a lot!
How Long Until the Book is Done?
It’ll be done when it’s done and not a moment before. It will definitely be available this year, though, and hopefully during the first half of the year. Once I figure out a title, I’ll do a cover reveal, hopefully sometime soon.
I’ve tossed my timeline for this book out the window, but I can tell you what steps I need to move through to get the book published.
First, I need to finish the rough draft. I anticipate that taking at least another month, probably closer to two.
Once I’m done with the rough draft, I’ll move into the editing stage. I’ll print off the whole monstrous manuscript, snap a quick photo of it to show you, and set about making it bleed with red ink. Oh, what a love-hate relationship I have with the murdering editing process.
If I power through editing, it’ll probably take about three to six months to finish.
After editing, I’ll run the manuscript through ProWritingAid and clean up the grammar, spelling, and prose so that it sounds as nice as possible before I release it out into the wild. This is the fastest stage, probably taking no more than a month.
Why is it Taking So Long?
I’ve heard authors talk about how long it takes them to write a book. Some say a month, others say a year. The common consensus in the publishing industry seems to be that if you want to be a professional author, you must deliver at least one book per year.
I don’t agree with that. Some of the greatest books ever written took years or decades to complete. Many successful books have been the only book that author has ever published. I’m a big fan of taking as long as necessary to deliver the best story you can–without getting mired in perfectionism or procrastination.
Also, life happens. I’m lucky that I don’t have to rely on my writing to survive. My writing is somewhat unlucky in that some days, I don’t get time to write because I’m a mom and things come up that I need to deal with immediately.
This book, the sequel to Muspell’s Sons, has proven to be much more difficult to write than Muspell’s Sons was. I got that rough draft mostly done in two months. This one…I think it’s been about ten months. Part of the reason was that I’ve been trying to juggle writing, marketing, and raising kids all at the same time. Another is that I wasn’t prepared for how frustrating it is to have a book that you’ve slaved away at for a year be completely lost in the abyss that is Amazon these days. I lost a lot of time to a long bout of depression that I’ve had difficulty climbing out of.
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