Last night, my work-in-progress reached a hell of a milestone.
100,000 words.
One hundred thousand words.
Oh, I know that for the genre that's the upper part of the word limit. I know that, in the editing phase, I'm going to have to cut a lot of the beginning and middle. It'll just be matter of making the book make sense with less words. I'm not done, yet. I may need another 15-25,000 words to wrap it up with any semblance of satisfaction.
Or, if I need another 50,000 words, I'll have two books on my hands. Who knows?
At this point, I'm just going to write the damn thing. Even knowing that I will have to cut stuff, I'm so thrilled that I managed to write a book this long. Its amazing to think that it took me 7 years to write my first book and I have to sweat for those last few thousand words. I eked out 96,000 by the skin of my teeth. It was pulling blood from a stone.
I like to think that in those 7 years, I learned some things. I've only been working full time on Dark Ember since November of 2019. So, I've written 100,000 words in less than 8 months. Compared to the 7 years it took me to write 96,000, I'm thinking I'm getting better at this.
With my writer's block busted, I've been feeling the creative energy coming back. Maybe it's my new routine, maybe its the lack of debilitating pain...I don't know. What I do know is that I'm doing some damn fine work.
Dark Ember is a good book. I know its a good book. Its a book I've wanted to read my whole life. Its epic fantasy meets urban fantasy, a hero's fellowship mixed with cell phones and swords. I love this damn book.
And I'm so stoked to finish it.
100,00 words. I need to celebrate. Maybe I'll buy myself a lap desk.
Writing to do tonight and Treason Day to celebrate tomorrow!
-C.A.