At last, I've written a story I actually like....

I was blown away when reading a First Draft of a new work I've been letting sit for awhile. The first chapter jumped off the page and really got my attention. As a reader, I am ever so blessed to know that Mr. Schaffer's writing has improved to this point.


I have decided to shelve another WIP I was working on, possibly permanently, in order to work on this project. I have a working title, though I'm the type of guy who, if I tell others what my story is about or what the title is, I lose interest in my work and say, "That is the stupidest work I've ever done!"

Oh well. Psychology, I guess.

Anyway, my new goal is to start and finish my second draft by the end of 2005. I'm giving myself somewhat of a liberal figure because, even though the word count in my First Draft is only around 30,000 and my chapters average six typewritten pages, I don't want to make a goal I cannot accomplish.

So, on to the work that lies ahead. I actually like this work, a rarity for something I myself have written.

An update on my work

I just finished Chapter 10 tonight. My First Draft totaled 27 chapters, so I think I'm moving along quite nicely.

The work is still very much alive within my mind, and I'm looking forward to finishing it and seeing what kind of wonderful story it becomes.

So far, my word count rounds out at roughly 13,520. That's only with the first ten chapters. I did a few calculations and it looks as though, if the work continues at its present averages, the work could end up being as much as 36,504 words in length, which is a decent improvement over my previous Draft of the same novel.

My target word count for this book will be at least 50,000 by the time I finish it. That is the conservative number. My highest hopes are for a work that could end up as long as 80,000 words long, which I'm pretty sure can be done with as big a story as I'm trying to tell.

Anyway, I hope this post finds you all having a good week, and a great weekend.


Talk to you all later.

Continuing to enjoy the work; word count method changed

I've finished Chapter Eleven, now, and I have found out that the word count method I was using was all wrong. I've since gone with the word counting method used by more professional writers than myself, and I have found out that my real word count--according to this method--is exactly 18,000 (just counting the eleven chapters I've done.)

The work is becoming more and more intriguing to me as I continue through it. There is plenty of emotion, lots of good content, and the plot moves along quickly but not so quick as to jump ahead of itself. This looks like the next book I'll be getting finished, and as fast as everything is falling into place, I could be finished with the entire thing in a few more months.

I am ever so pleased by this!

Let's try this again....

I had this pretty well figured out a few minutes ago, but then I lost my connection to AW for several minutes. Oh, well: computers.



Anyway, I wanted to update you all this morning and let you know that Chapter 12 of my 2nd Draft is finished. I'm a little bit under halfway finished with the 2nd Draft, at 78 pages total.

I thought you'd all like to know about that. Talk to you later, and I'll continue to update as I go along.

Oh, Goody! Another update!

I worked on Chapter 13 last night while very tired, and I'm surprised I actually did as good a job as I did--I was only half-awake. But 13 is done now, and 14 is the half-way point of the entire novel. There are, like I've said in the past, 27 chapters in all.

Actually, I was thinking about Chapter 27 earlier today, and about possibly turning it into an epilogue, as it is very short and, though it is a part of the story, has the feel of a special end-note to me.

I did another word-count again this evening, and came up with 21,000 words. This is with 84 pages, and since the draft is roughly half-done, I'm looking at a draft that could easily surpass 40,000 words. Maybe even a few thousand more, as right now the word-count for the rest of the novel is nothing but guesswork. I'm seeing my target word-count of 80,000 or even 90,000 getting closer and closer all the time.

But there's something I had forgotten about: patience and perseverance. I haven't been very patient or perseverant with my works over the last few years. Now that I'm being both again, I'm seeing good results.


Talk to you all later!

SC Harrison said:

Keep it up, Sean. At the rate you're going, you'll be done in no time at all.

Like Tri said, you're an inspiration. I finally got rolling with the SF project I've been mulling over for the last few weeks. I always forget what it feels like to "get into it". What a kick.

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Thank you kindly, Steve. I appreciate it. And I'm glad to see you're getting some good momentum going on your new work. I hope you have great success with it.

triceretops said:

Good for you too, SC. It's been exactly two weeks for me too. I'm kicking around a fantasy idea, but haven't taken that plunge. It's maddening, since I've never been blocked like this, nor have I ever been without an idea that struck me over the head with lightning and thunder claps. Why am I looking so hard for this grand muse smack upside the head, I don't know. That's how the other books affected me--they clobbered me right out of the gate and they were easy and fun to do. I'm trying desperately to recapture that same feeling for a new project, and it isn't coming at all. It's not a writing block--it's a CONCEPT block.

Tri

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I think it has something to do with aging, Tri. I myself suffer from the same problem you talked about. I know I'm a lot older than I was when I started working on Wyverinia Chronicles. I put so much work and creativity into that one book, that I think I exhausted much of my creativity.

Plus, with my metabolism slowing down (I'm now in my mid-thirties--I started WC in my teens) I honestly believe that my mind simply can't work as fast as it used to.

But one good thing about this scenario, that I've noticed, is that my mind doesn't race on to bizarre stories and weird ideas just on a whim. I've found also that the quality of my writing has improved as I have gotten older, because, well, I've had a lot of experience in writing now, comparitively to when I first began my initial work.

Truthfully, I yearn for the days when I was younger and had inspiration galore, but I'm looking at it as a trade-off. I personally would rather have a few good stories to tell than to have a whole bunch of stories that, because my mind would be racing so much, I could never find out whether they would work or not.

I hope this helps you out, Tri. And I'm truly glad you find my work to be inspiring. I take that as a high compliment coming from you, because you have been an inspiration to me, as well, over the nine months that I have been a member here.

Not quite a hundred pages yet, but....

The book is really coming along, and I'm blown away by all the emotion I'm finding within it. I finished Chapter 15 earlier tonight, and that chapter really tugged at my heart.

I feel kind of ridiculous saying that, because I not only wrote the darned thing; I created it! Nevertheless, the work is constantly speaking to my own heart. And the emotion has a message which I definitely want others to experience as well.

So far, the work has a total of 94 pages, bringing the word count to, at the end of Chapter 15: 23,500 words.

And I haven't really added all that much to the work, just changed a lot of the words around to make it read better. I have added a few things, which definitely adds to the story, but pretty much, the work is, in story and plot, the same as it was in the First Draft.

This is probably the best I've felt about a manuscript in my life. I've not done this well in so, so long.

Cool! Another update!

I finished Chapter 17 early this morning, and now I only have ten chapters to go.

Not to shamelessly promote the thing, but I'm amazed at how much this book is speaking to me. It's far better, IMO, than Wyverinia Chronicles could ever have hoped to have been. I am very happy with this new work.

Word count as of now: 26,500 at 106 completed pages.

A 'Thank-you' Note, and yet another Update on my Progress

britlitfantw said:

That’s fantastic, Sean, keep it up! It’s nice to find a work that you’re really passionate about, because it means it keeps you inspired even through the rough patches. Good luck!

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Thank you for the kind words, britlitfantw. I appreciate the encouragement very much.

Update on my 2nd Draft:
Now that I'm more than halfway done with my 2nd Draft, I'm finding myself getting discouraged. The procrastinator in me continues to try to keep me from working any further. It's almost as though my body is saying "Sean, you've done enough."

But my Craft tells me different. I want to finish my 2nd Draft so I can find out how many words I have with it, and so I can contemplate setting the manuscript aside for, oh, I'd say a couple weeks at least, and in the mean time working on another idea that has been brewing within me.

I honestly can't wait to do my Third Draft. I know a lot can be added to this work without padding it up too heavily; it's just a matter of doing it. But before I can, I have to let it simmer on the back burner for a few weeks.

But again, I intend to finish the 2nd Draft before putting the work onto the said burner.

Anyway, it's getting difficult, right now, to continue working on the manuscript. I have Chapter 19 of my 1st Draft sitting next to the keyboard, ready to go, but I'm wondering if I'm going to work on it tonight or if I'm going to wait and do it tomorrow.

I just don't know right at the moment.

What I do know is, the book is still very enjoyable to me, and I look forward to eventually submitting it to a publisher.

Another update!

I finished Chapter 19 early this morning, and I'm planning on doing Chapter 20 later tonight.

Word Count so far: 29,250 at 117 pages.

It's coming right along, although I have been getting rather tired lately. I think that tiredness is where I'm getting the discouragement that I spoke of in my previous post, from.

I'll be all right, and the 2nd Draft should be finished (I'm just making a wild guess) by the end of the week.

Now to have some good, rich and work on Chapter 20!

Talk to you all later!

Thank you kindly, Aspiringwriter. I appreciate it.

How many updates can I fit into one thread?

I finished Chapter 20 tonight! So far, the manuscript is 124 pages long and the word count has reached 31,000. I still have seven chapters to go, so I very well could end up with a work as long as 150 or 160 pages. The 40,000 word goal is that much closer now. Only 9,000 words to go!

Go ahead and change the number to Chapters 21 and 22 finished. The book is now 134 pages long, at 33,500 words.

Well, I've got to get off the computer for tonight. I'm sad to say I'm still awake at 2:30 in the morning, when I should be sleeping. And, I still have another program to run as of yet.

Have a good night everyone, and I look forward to talking to you all again later this afternoon.

YEAH!!!!

I just now finished my Manuscript's Second Draft! Woo hoo!

It barely weighs in at 162 pages, right at 40,500 words. So my tiniest goal has been met.

With my Third Draft, I'm going to try to add a few thousand more words, through character and locale descriptions. Also, many of the 'ships' involved in the story have not been well-described in either the First or Second Draft. That will add quite a bit more, as well.

I'm hoping the addition of the descriptive things can add somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 more words to the work. Of course, this is really just a wild guess, as I don't really know how much more stuff has to be done.

But I'm half-way to my overall target Word Count of 80,000 for the completed novel.

However, I now have to set the work aside so it can 'ferment,' as some other writers might say, and I will from this point on be working on another manuscript I've been thinking about for some time. I don't know if I'll be putting together a First Draft of the new one yet, but I at least intend to work on this alternate WIP for roughly a week (possibly more, depending on how well everything goes).

So that's pretty much my newest update for tonight. I hope you all have a great evening, and a good day tomorrow.


Second Draft Completed
162 pages
26 chapters and an Epilogue
40,500 words.

AWESOME!!