First draft stats, DEADLINE.

[seanan_mcguire]

Current stats:

Words: 6,330.
Total words: 145,067.
Reason for stopping: The book is over, long live the book.
Music: the Deadline play list and random shuffle.
Lilly and Alice: the tan cat tree and the orange cat tree, respectively.

First draft stats:

Pages: 498
Chapters: twenty-seven, plus a coda
Started: July 26, 2008
Finished: February 20, 2010

Feed took from September 2005 to December 2007 to write—roughly twenty-seven months. Deadline took me nineteen months to write. This is a good learning curve, and hopefully means that I can write Blackout in eleven months (hey, a girl can dream, right?). These are monster-length books, especially when compared to my normal, conservative "101,000 to 112,000 words" word count volumes. But they're necessary words. These books aren't padded at all. They're the length they are because that's the length they need to be.

And it means we get to spend more time together. I really miss and mourn my books when they're finished, and yeah, draft two gets to happen now, but draft two isn't the same. Draft two is about smoothing out the continuity, fixing the pacing, and picking up any dropped threads. Book three is where I get to start making things up again.

I'm amazed and shaky and a little off-balance. I am now going to go eat ice cream and watch Cabin Fever 2 (bought for just this occasion).

Comments

[hsifyppah.livejournal.com]

Yayyyy deadline!

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

So. Much. Flail.

[amanda-nye.livejournal.com]

woot!

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Glee. :)

[mercwriter.livejournal.com]

Awesome! WTG finishing draft 1. B-)

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Now...draft two.

[catnip13.livejournal.com]

*grins*

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

*flops*

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Yay draft!!

(Also, 145K? Officially not monster. Trust me.)

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

By my standards, these are great lowing beasts, ready to destroy all mankind and all mankind's works.

I am so excited to get back to Toby.

[laurenthemself]

Congratulations!

Important question: what flavour ice cream?

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Vanilla bean with Starbucks pumpkin spice syrup on top.

[laurenthemself]

Oooh. Nommy!

[hms42]

Congratulations on finishing the book.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[satyrblade.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!

Oh, wow - now I know why my novel has been taking so long to write. I'm used to banging out huge rafts of BOOK in a month or two, and I've felt slack about spending so much time on Holy Creatures To and Fro. Thanks for putting it into perspective.

*happy dance for the You*

*hugs*

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Perspective?

Confused cat is confused.

[satyrblade.livejournal.com]

It's taking you years to write your novels. I keep getting frustrated that I'm not writing them in months. When it seems like half the writers I know turn out three or four books a year (and when, at White Wolf, I did more than ten a year), it's easy to lose perspective. Thanks for giving some back to me.

[markbernstein.livejournal.com]

Good for you! Enjoy whatever deserved indulgences you choose.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[deakat]

Yay! I heartily approve of monster-length books.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

They are vast, and contain multitudes.

[markbernstein.livejournal.com]

By the way, speaking of the zombie apocalypse, have you seen Wait, Wait, Don't Eat Me?

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

EEEHEEEHEEHEEHEE omg. :D

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Yup.

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

Ooohhh you finished! Huzzah! *throws confetti*

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

I did finished!

And now: The Brightest Fell.

[archangelbeth]

Congrats! (And how'er you gettin' 145K word books accepted? I thought there was this huge pushback... Or is that in a different genre than Feed and Deadline?)

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Um...I wrote the first one, it was 145k, they bought it, now my contracts for the sequels say that length or longer? I dunno.

[archangelbeth]

Holy heck. I must compile a list of publishers not afraid of large books. That this gives me even more reason to acquire Feed, etc., is a bonus. *grin*

[dandelionteeth.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Glee. :)

[keristor.livejournal.com]

So on that progression the book after Blackout will take only 3 months, and the one after that will be published 5 months before you write it. That sounds like a good trick if you can do it *g*...

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Thhhpppppppt.

[jacylrin.livejournal.com]

Just to let you know, in the last few days I've gotten emails from both Amazon and Borders suggesting I pre-order your new book, or pick it up when it hits on the 2nd :-D

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Dude, AWESOME!

[jacylrin.livejournal.com]

Oh, and yay for draft completion!

Yaaaaay! (cue Kermit flail)

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Thaaaaaaaaaank you.