by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
So, I’ve finally nailed down a solid outline of the first draft of my first novel. I’ve completed writing everything but the third act. My biggest lingering problem at the moment is what to do after the climax of the story.
I need to wrap everything up while also leaving people wanting more. I just remember when I read IT by Stephen King that I felt the ending seemed rushed and I want to avoid that. And, yet, I’m only willing to give myself two chapters after the climax.
Anything more than that and the story is going to not only drag but also, well, be even longer than it already is. I’m going to come in at about 140,000 words it seems, which is 40,000 too many.
But the second draft I’m going to go through and slice and rework as much of the outline as I can to whittle down that word count to something a lot closer to the sweat spot of 100,000 words. If I can get the second draft down to something around 100,000 words I’m going to be very pleased.
At the moment, at least, there don’t seem to be any existential problems that I might face in the transition from first draft to second draft. Really, the biggest issue I see at the moment is how I’m going to afford to get an editor to look over the second draft so I can make it more professional before I query in fall 2023.
I’m still smarting at how much delay there will be between when I start querying and when the damn novel might actually hit shelves. It could be fucking years and I’m not getting any younger.
But that’s the path I chose when I decided to go through the gatekeepers to get published in a traditional manner.
I’m pretty stoked at what I’ve come up with, though. The framework is there for a really solid pop novel. A lot now is going to depend on luck, the beta reader process and any editor I might be able to wrangle at some point to look at the novel before I query.
Lurching into the querying process is both exhilarating and very alarming. It’s going to be a lot of stress but it’s better to burn out than fade away as they say.
