I have committed book

[pbray]

Wrote the last scene of THE FINAL SACRIFICE this morning. Celebrated by jumping on the bike for a ride, hiring a painter to paint my house, then lunch at my favorite place. As soon as I post this, I'm heading off to the movie theater to hide from the heat.

The final totals are:
     Total manuscript: 103,250
     Words written since June 1st: 85,250.

As you can see, it's been a crazy couple of months. I don't think I could have kept on track if it wasn't for the great folks over at novel_in_90. I don't necessarily recommend the level of effort required to write this much in such a short period (especially for folks like myself who are fitting this in around a day job). But it can be done.

And I know that there's good writing in there. The scenes I wrote over the past few days are some of the best I've ever done.

And, to make my day even better, spotted a great rec for THE SEA CHANGE over at fireun's LJ. THE SEA CHANGE totally kicked my ass while I was writing it, so it's nice to see that the effort was worth it.

Comments

[sylvia-rachel.livejournal.com]

Woo-hoo! Congratulations! :D

(By the way, when I get my August paycheque with the retro-to-May raise, I'm going right out and buy The Sea Change and a bunch of other books...)

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Yay for book buying sprees! I'm going on one tomorrow, myself :-)

[wishweaver.livejournal.com]

Wow! Go you! :-D

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[susanjett.livejournal.com]

Yay!

Congratulations on book!

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm still in the shock&awe stage at the moment.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Hip hip!

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Thanks! You'll understand just how relieved I am to have pulled this off.

[scbutler.livejournal.com]

I am in awe. You wrote a book (a good one) that quickly? I can't write a short story in 3 months.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Well I can't write a short story in three years :-)

Seriously, though, it helps that this was the final book of a trilogy, so I didn't have time-consuming worldbuilding, or basic research to slow me down.

Plus I was in deep dive mode, which meant that the book was the only thing going on--even when I surfaced to go to work, or attend to the bare necessities like grocery shopping, laundry, eating, sleeping, etc, I was still in the writing headspace.

I just can't sustain this level of effort month in, month out. We both know writers who can, who are writing 3, 4 or more books a year, but that's not me. I'm more like one of those Tour de France guys, who gears up for a month of hellish effort and then wants time off.

[scbutler.livejournal.com]

And I'm more like one of those middle-aged guys stuffing himself on the couch when he should be out on the road.

[chichiri-no-da.livejournal.com]

Yay! Congratulations!

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much!

[fireun.livejournal.com]

huzzah and congrats! looking forward to reading!

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I think you'll like it.

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

YAY PATRICIA!

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I is happy.

[lindabg.livejournal.com]

By my calculations, that's an average of about 1,300 words a day. Pretty impressive, considering you're also working full time. Congratulations! I just finished the first (very rough) draft of my latest today, having managed an entire chapter yesterday, but I'm too wasted to actually celebrate.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Congrats on finishing the first draft, that's awesome!

[footlingagain.livejournal.com]

Just thought I'd say hello, and I've taken you at your word by adding you to my friends list so that I don't keep cluttering novel_in_90 with impertinent questions :-).

I'll try not to clutter your page with too many, either *g*

[pbray.livejournal.com]

*waves Hi!*

Glad to have you here.