Monday, September 1, 2014

Holy Word Count!

I'm over at From the Write Angle today talking about how to make your writing leaner. I know from experience how daunting that can be, but that experience has made me a much stronger writer today.

Probably 6 years ago or so, I decided to write a novel. I knew nothing. NOTHING. Absolutely nothing.

But I had read a whole slew (or six slews) of novels, so I wasn't in the least bit daunted.

The story ended up at over 170 000 words.

Yup, you read that right.

Then I stumbled upon Agent Query Connect and started to learn what writing a novel was all about. I learned a lot. Backstory, dialogue tags, strong verbs instead of verb/adverb combinations, echoes, tension, conflict, character arcs...

So I revised. And revised again a couple of (dozen) times.

Eventually, the story was down to 81 000. Less than half. And it was SO much better!

But I wouldn't trade the experience of writing that story in all its over-padded glory for anything. It will always have a safe place in my hard drive. I learned more from writing that story ... and revising that story ... than I could have from a dozen classes.

How about you? Any fond memories of your first serious attempt at writing?

28 comments:

Elizabeth Spann Craig said...

Jemi--170,000...whew!

I had several incompletes. :) Then, when I was finally ready to finish a manuscript, I was better prepared, having learned from my mistakes before.

Mason Canyon said...

I hope (know) you use the process of writing that first novel to inspire your students to reach their goals. The hard work does pay off in the end.

L. Diane Wolfe said...

I had one that hit 200,000. One set of revisions alone cut 30,000 words.

JeffO said...

A hundred seventy THOUSAND? And I thought I wrote long! I've never come that close.

mshatch said...

Book one of my fantasy trilogy had a word count of 219,000, so I can relate to that! My first stand alone book sat at 140K and is now at 132K but still needs a serious slash and burn session. Ah well. One of these days...

Jemi Fraser said...

Elizabeth - I know! It was a very 'large' learning experience! :)

Mason - actually I've been cowardly in that department! No one knows I write. Not sure how my board would feel about me writing romance! :)

Diane - that's awesome!! Glad I'm not alone!

Karen - and I never know pages! But 700 sounds like a LOT too! :)

Marcy - 219 is BIG! Love it - all those words to play with :)

DEZMOND said...

yep, the first book I've ever translated took me three months to finish :) and now I can translate a novel in a month and a week or less :)

cleemckenzie said...

Learning by doing is quite the experience. Of course, I'd never do anything like that. . .Wait! I think I have. No. I'm sure I have. The 200,000 word behemoth nests at the back of one of my shelves.

Kelly Steel said...

OMG! Jemi! 170K? None of my books are anywhere near that!

Jemi Fraser said...

Dezzy - it's great to see that progress! Our brains learn to work so much more efficiently!

Lee - And I bet that hidden gem taught you all kinds of things! :)

Kelly - I know!! Thankfully, my newer ones are much leaner :)

Unknown said...

It appears our writing history is much the same. My word count (some years ago) was 180,000. It is now 76,000. And like you, I could not have gleaned the experience from 'any' book.

Like they say, practice makes perfect :)

Lynda R Young as Elle Cardy said...

I can relate. My first novel was 219k Yikes!

Anonymous said...

My second complete manuscript, at the age of 19, was 800-850 pages, standard font and margins--I can't remember the count on my word processor or if it even had that function. I'll check out the link.

Jemi Fraser said...

Wendy - very close indeed! And we'll keep practising!

Lynda - love it!

Medeia - Wow!!! That's a lot of pages! :)

Anonymous said...

I don't remember what my initial word count was; I just remember Terri Bruce having a virtual heart attack. hahahaha I think it was around 150k. I'm down to 96k and counting a the moment. :)

Shelley Sly said...

Wow, that is a high word count! :) My first novel was about 100,000 words when it really should have been about 60-70K. But all of my novels since then have actually been too short! I don't know how that happened.

Carol Kilgore said...

All of us start at the beginning, no matter how undaunted we are :)

Writing is about the journey. I wouldn't trade anything either.

Jemi Fraser said...

Debra - Love it! I remember being shocked that mine was high too. Love Terri's reaction :)

Shelley - it was high! My latest one is a bare bones one too. Gone too far the other way :)

Carol - exactly! I've enjoyed every moment of the journey so far!

S.A. Larsenッ said...

I did the same thing with my first novel, which was about 6 years ago too! Mine ended at around 160,000 words. Then I met other writers online and someone informed me about word count. LOL I was devastated. But word count is important. It can help make or break a story. I'm not just talking about a publisher picking it up. I'm referring to what should be included in the store as opposed to what should be left out to make it more effective.

Jemi Fraser said...

Sheri - exactly! My discovery about backstory was my most eye opening and helpful!!

Nas said...

Holy Word Count!

Julie Musil said...

Oh, wow! What a transformation! I am still fond of that first manuscript, although it'll never see the light of day.

Jemi Fraser said...

Eds - exactly!!

Julie - me too! Even the thought of it will always make me smile :)

Michelle Wallace said...

I seem to be the opposite!
I struggle to write lots of words... is something wrong with me?
I'm trying...

Beth said...

So many learning opportunities! I remember writing my first picture book and being positive it would be accepted by the first publisher I sent it to. (Of course, I never did publish it.) But after all these years, I'm still learning things all the time.

Jemi Fraser said...

Michelle - not even a little bit! The current rewrite I'm on turned out to be 15k short! But I'm having fun fleshing out those bones!

Beth - me too! And I think that's what makes it so much fun!

DMS said...

I definitely agree with you! When I started my ms was probably double the word count that it is now. Less is more and boy did I learn a lot because of it (and I am still learning).
~Jess

Jemi Fraser said...

Jess - less really is more! And I'm still learning too - and it's so much fun!