by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls
I’m at the midpoint of the first draft. This is the point where the tempo of the plot picks up considerably. I am actively not looking to see what my word count is. I don’t want that clouding my mind as I tell the story the first time. I am, however, pleased with the number of pages I have so far. I’m well on my way to wrapping up the first draft somewhere about 240 pages.
If you take into consider that a hardback novel’s dimensions are significantly smaller than that your typical printer paper, then that suggests I’m on my way to a novel that in paperback will be about 600 pages. Really, the goal is simply not to get too close to 200,000 words. If I can get into that sweet spot of about, say, 175,000 words then I’m going to be very happy.
The structure of the novel doesn’t fit the “rules.” My midpoint is actually probably maybe 20% past the actual midpoint. But I’m past the point where I have to lock myself into those artificial constraints. The amount of time the second half of the novel covers isn’t as much as the first part, so that’s another issue to take into consideration.
But the second half of the novel is definitely very action packed. Some pretty spectator things happen. I’m not too worried people won’t buy into the premise because, well, have you looked on Twitter today? So I’m trying to give myself a minor amount of time to clear my mind before I map out the specifics of the rest of the novel. Those six months of development I did really, really made writing the first draft much, much easier. I’m more worried about burning myself out at this point than anything else.
Anyway. Stay tuned.
