I started working on Neutral Zone in November 2006 for National Novel Writing Month. During that month I churned out a bit more than 50,000 words and had the foundation for the story. During 2007 I consistently wrote a couple mornings a week and by the time 2008 started I was on to draft number three. Number three was the magic draft because it really had a solid timeline and POV behind it.
Just a few minutes ago, I wrote “The End” at the bottom of the third draft. It clocks in at 200 single spaced pages and just over 107,000 words. My new goal is to give this draft a good polish before we go on vacation next month so that I can give it to a couple trusted readers for some feedback.
Is the novel any good? Not sure…time will tell. Right now I’m happy I got the story I wanted to tell down on paper in its entirety.
Completing a novel… not a bad way to start a Friday.
WOO HOOO!!!!!!!!! You are an inspiration to me!! Congrats!!!!
Congrats! It’s always a good feeling to put one to bed, isn’t it.
(You, um, do realize that you need to double space it before anyone will look at it, right?)
Of course… it will be all nice and properly formatted before it goes beyond the trusted readers.
Sorry, had to ask. You’d be surprised how many dolts in the MFA program had no idea that double spacing is standard practice, both for school assignments AND professional submissions.
That’s crazy. Even when I took creative writing in college we had to do that standard formatting stuff.