by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I have gotten this far — the midpoint — of my first novel a number of times, only for either everything to fall apart or I simply lost faith in the whole thing and I had to start all over again.
But I’m definitely running out of time. I’m in put up or shut time when it comes to this novel. I just have to hurry up and get something, anything done. If I’m not careful, I’m going to wake up and it’s 10 years from now and I will be pretty exactly where I am now in this project.
But at the moment, I feel pretty confident. I pretty confident that I wrap up this first draft by around Christmas and finish the second draft by sometime in spring 2025. Then I plow myself into the beta process — probably by being other people’s beta readers in exchange for their reading my beta draft.
That’s how it’s suppose to go, at least.
I’m going to need things to break my way a few times, of course. If I can somehow, someway get the funds for an editor to take a look at this novel before I query it, then all the better. And, of course, one big issue is length. This novel, I fear, is going to be way too long on the word count front.
I keep asking people how to manage word count and I keep not getting any coherent answer. Hopefully, the story, unto itself will be compelling enough that even if it does endup being a little long that won’t preclude — by definition — me being able to find a literary agent.
