Dead Man’s Party: Finished the novel first draft

I finished another novel today — this one pretty much on schedule. I’d planned it for 50,000 words, and came in at 50,085.

Wrote 1847 words in a smidge over a hour to get there.

I got a GOOD ending for the novel. Most of the time, great endings are something I build in revision, and this one has the bones to become much better.  

Printed off the last of my pages. Next week, I’ll write one final scene for the book, something along the lines of “Six Months Later…”

In it, I’ll either tie the thing off as a standalone, or set up the some hooks for a series. Maybe both. I won’t know what I want to do with this particular novel until I’ve done the revision, but as of this minute, I’m thinking one-off standalone.

I’m not sure that I want to write post-apocalyptic as a regular thing, and I resolved the cannibals and zombies in this chapter, so I’m not sure where I’d take it if I decided to go further.

But it was a damn fine writing day, and I like how it ended. Though it’s pure scruffy, crappy first-draft writing. 

The revision will be fun. 

And I’ll be using this novel as my demo for Streamlined Revision Process for my How to Revise Your Novel course, which needs this particular bonus lesson.

So even if it doesn’t sell much, I’ll get a lot of very good things out of this particular novel.

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