Friday 20 June 2008

Finished My Latest Novel!

That Civil War horror novel set in Missouri I've been nattering about these past few months is finally done. I finished it at about 9 this morning. It came out to 91,962 words. I started it on January 2 of this year, so it took me slightly less than six months.

This is the quickest I've ever finished a novel. My previous novel, weighing in at 125,000 words, took three years. My second novel, much shorter at 85,000 words, took two years, but with nine months off while I wrote my guidebook to London.

The reason this went so quickly is that I didn't write a word for several months. I let the idea germinate in my head, filling out plot lines and characters, so that when I finally put fingers to keyboard, it went very smoothly.

Of course, I've only done the first draft, and the second draft of some early chapters. I have a long way to go before it's ready to send to an agent, but it's nice finally look at an approximation of the completed piece.

I'm going to take next week off for personal reasons, but I'll see you back here the week after!

3 comments:

Minnette Meador said...

Congrats, Sean! How exciting is that? Just finished my second Romance on Friday as well and sent off to the editor...small world! Now I'm finishing up the edits for Starsight II. Seems like mine get shorter and shorter to write, too. Funny how that happens...isn't it? Best of luck with the book...can't wait to read it! BTW, I finally figured out how to subscribe to your blogs...took me long enough. I sometimes hate these pesky computer things! Minnette ;)

Keef said...

Congratulations!

Christopher Hoare said...

Hi Sean:

Congratulations on reaching the end of your latest novel -- I finished the first draft of my latest about the same day.

Thanks also for putting up the link to my blog entries about the virtual Book Tour I did for The Wildcat's Victory. I only just noticed the incoming link this evening as I scanned down to the end of my 'manage' page.

I'm considering doing another for Arrival but it looks as if it'd have to be November. I get the next one half price -- for being a good boy I suppose. I don't think I was too difficult to get along with.

Chris. http://thewildcatsvictory.wordpress.com

Looking for more from Sean McLachlan? He also hangs out on the Civil War Horror blog, where he focuses on Civil War and Wild West history.

You can also find him on his Twitter feed and Facebook page.