Tuesday, February 8, 2011

The Progress Bar 5



As I said earlier this week, I am finished the first draft. All the loose ends are mostly wrapped up, although there is certainly room for a sequel. The manuscript is 66,283 words long now. A little on the lighter side than I was hoping for. Recommended length for young adult titles is 45-80k, but I was aiming for around 75k. It seems to be expanding slightly as I progress through the second draft so I expect the final to be in the vicinity of 70k.

The second draft is going smoothly, occasionally I find places where I need to expand the descriptions or add a few details. One short section needed a complete re-write, but on the whole I am very happy, looking back on what I've written. I expect the second draft will be ready for beta readers by the end of next week, well ahead of schedule.

Hopefully it will be ready to query in another month or so. Time to gird myself for battle, prepare for the slings and arrows of the query process and let slip the queries of war!

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