Wa-Hoo! I finished my novel! YAY!

[shadowkat]

Wa-hoo! I finished my novel! I finished my novel! It clocks in at 96,973 words and approximately 255 pages. It only took me two years and three months to write. Best thing I've ever written in my humble opinion.

Now, comes the hard part. Revising? Nope. Having other people read it. Then sending it to literary agents and publishers. Then working on the next book in the series. Hopefully, with a full time job, I can clock in a novel every two years. Not giving up the day job any time soon. I come from a long line of frustrated novelists and artists on both sides of my family.

Feeling very proud of myself right now. Even if nothing comes of the novel. There's an odd feeling of accomplishment when you've completed one.

Comments

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Didn't manage to do it in time for that contest, but oh well. At least it has been completed. Now I'm re-reading and pencil revising. Keeping a notebook to jot down all the character names, clothing, props, locations, to ensure consistency. One of my biggest problems with writing is maintaining consistency. It takes me so long to write the things and I do it so sporadically, that I often forget minor details and lose consistency.

How's your novel coming? Did you finish in time for the contest?

[fresne.livejournal.com]

Yes, and no.

I finished two days prior to the deadline. Submitted to the contest based on the contest description page. On the morning of the deadline, I got an email saying that I hadn't followed the submission guidelines as listed on the FAQ page, which (if this were technical documentation) I'd say bad on them because they did not agree with the statement on the submissions guidelines page. But in retrospect, I should have been more paranoid.

In any case, in a somewhat gotta go to work paniced state, I made the change to my submittal, but in doing so grabbed the wrong file. Which is to say, I had made changes to the novel so it would meet their max word requirements on a chapter, by chapter basis, and I grabbed the wrong one. I got an email the next day that my submission did not meet their requirements.

Sigh.

"Keeping a notebook to jot down all the character names, clothing, props, locations, to ensure consistency. One of my biggest problems with writing is maintaining consistency."

I know what you mean. I drove Karen crazy on the alpha draft. Which is funny, because I took notes.

Anyway, good luck with the revise.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

What a headache, I'm so sorry about the contest. If it is any consolation my mother told me she'd seen an article in the paper regarding it - apparently the contest originally required an entrance fee. Something like 50 dollars or thereabouts. But no one was submitting. So they changed it. Also quite a few people complained about the submission guidelines and how incredibly confusing and contradictory they were. I thought they had clarified some of that. But from your post, apparently they hadn't.

Sigh.

The scary thing is the contest was hosted by the marketing/acquisitions department of one of the major NYC publishing houses - either Simon & Schuster or Random House. There really is no excuse for not being clear about this. If you expect people to comply with your requirements, you should be clear regarding them.

Oh and thanks. Have made it through four chapters so far. This is really and truly my first draft...since I didn't really revise much as I wrote it, which I used to do. Just wanted to get the story out.

[anomster.livejournal.com]

Mazel tov, s'kat! That's great! Three days ago--wow, I gotta check LJ more often.

That's a really good idea to keep the notebook. Once I copyedited a Western in which the author mixed up the names of 2 characters--after 1 of them had been killed.

Good luck getting it published--I hope to get a chance to read it!