Today I reached what I thought was a milestone in my journey
to publishing my first novel, only to find out it’s just a check point.
I've been working on my first novel for a few years now,
tweaking it sporadically while I mainly focused on meeting magazine deadlines. Most
of the time I've worked on the manuscript, I've been “perfecting” the Prologue
rather than actually finishing the first draft. More than one published author has
told me how foolish that is. One published author told me in 2013 that I need
to know how the novel ends before I can find out how it begins. (Wrap your head
around THAT!) Last November, another published author explained to me that if
writing a novel is like baking cookies, the first draft is like putting all the
ingredients onto the table. Once I've got all the ingredients out and the oven
has been turned on, then I can start to mix the ingredients to make the cookies.
Today, I triumphantly raised both hands in the air,
believing that I had finished the first draft of my first-ever novel manuscript!
My novel, the first in the Nova Chronicles series, is called A Reason to Run. It’s about a young man who lives on the planet of
Elba, as part of a society divided into clans. Elba’s orbit around its star is such that the planet is habitable for three years at a time, followed by a fatally cold and uninhabitable year of winter. While the
protagonist, Errol Nova, and his sister live under tyrannical rule, the theme of the novel is more about how family trumps society.
Once I reached a satisfactory climax and denouement today, my
novel clocked in at 46,246 words. However, as I did some research on novel
length, I found that, yes, it’s technically long enough to be considered a “novel”
rather than a “novella,” but it’s more stranded between the two. It’s like in a
game of Clue when you roll the dice and exit one room, having successfully pinpointed
the right suspect, room, and weapon—you just need to get to the right room—but because
luck wasn't a lady you’re now stuck on a square in the void where you can’t do
anything but watch helplessly as your sister enters the Hall and solves the
game.
In other words, the typical length of an adult novel is more
like 80,000 to 90,000 words, and fantasy novels can be over 100,000 words
without being considered too long. Going back to the analogy of the cookies, I've
only got half of the ingredients out on the table. I guess I’d better turn off
the oven.
At any rate, what I've finished writing today will be
considered “Part I,” whether it’s published as a stand-alone, teaser novel or is the
first half of a much larger, complete novel. That means I've got a lot of work to do revising
Part I. I already know the direction I’m going to take with Part II, I just
need to find where those ingredients are stashed.
Stay tuned, Elbers.
