Getting There! One More Step Towards a Finished Novel

It is has been two-and-a-half months since my last novel progress update, June 24. At that time my goal was to be finished with draft six by August 31st.

I’m disappointed to announce I missed that deadline. But only slightly disappointed.

As of this morning, I am approximately two-thirds complete with draft six and am confident that this draft will be complete on or before the end of this month, September 30th. Thirty days late.

I was too optimistic that I could write as much as I needed during the summer. There are a lot of distractions in a Hudson Valley summer. It’s a beautiful place to live, and with some investments we made in a backyard patio and pergola, we invited more houseguests than ever during the month of August.

You may be wondering what does two-thirds complete look like? Well, the prior draft was 81, 000 words and 67 scenes. I’m currently at 61,000 words and 55 scenes. That may seem like 75% complete. But I’m now projecting this sixth draft to be closer to 75-80 scenes and 90,000 words. Pagewise that will come to about 325 pages. The previous draft was 282.

I am excited about where the story is and where it’s going.

With the help of the comprehensive feedback I received from my editor after she read the entire manuscript last winter, the story and the writing is 100% better.

She recommended three critical storytelling components that I didn’t take seriously enough with previous drafts:

1. The main character’s story arc over the course of the novel, from beginning to end.

2. A more intriguing ending that would manifest from the updated character arcs.

3. Having more of the main characters telling their stories directly on the page and not second-hand through other characters.

The first two have been easier for me to pull off. A brainstorming session after receiving the feedback yielded a couple of ideas to raise the stakes in the story, making it more interesting.

The third was the most challenging because I am writing the story from the main character’s point of view. A first-person point of view means that any other character’s point of view can only come from direct interactions with the main character or from the main character’s thoughts and reactions.

So to bring key characters into the scenes and make the interactions more impactful I had to create scenes and conversations that brought them physically into the scene, either in person or in a telephone conversation.

In previous drafts, I had the main character telling what had happened, which isn’t nearly as interesting, engaging, or impactful.

One of the reasons I haven’t been writing on my Substack in recent weeks is that I've been focusing on this draft. Every minute I take to write a Substack article takes minutes away from working on the novel.

Here’s my updated goal.

I have approximately 29,000 words to go in 20 scenes over the next 22 potential writing days. If I were to write every day, it would come out to 1,318 words per day, which will probably increase to 2,000 words per day, because you and I know I won’t be able to write 100% of the available days.

So, wish me luck, and I’ll provide an update in the next week or so on this topic, and will also be sharing later this week another post on my Living Your Best Life series.

‘til then…

All My Best,