And We're Done

As in, the completion of the first draft of the current book, known as LMS (interestingly, I'm still of a mind that its working title isn't right for it, but I haven't come up with anything better).

I had a target of 80,000 words. I tend to lose count close to the end, so the target is a very loose thing. The book will be as long as it needs to be. That this one finished at 80,118, so close to target, was quite a shock.

Now it goes to edit and review. I've written before about my process for this as it's a little unothodox and probably much quicker than for most. Because the book is reviewed and corrected chapter by chapter as its written, there isn't a massive rewrite about to take place.

Unless, of course, my other beta readers find massive holes or (perish the thought) think it simply isn't very good.

Tonight will be a quick run through using Word's spelling and grammar checker, then off it goes to beta readers (2 electronically, one will receive a printed, bound copy which I'll put together tomorrow). I won't look at it again unless I receive corrections by email. Once they've all finished, sent corrections and any comments, I'll sit down and read it through for the first time, making any more corrections along the way.

Assuming all is well, it will be sent to our agent before the end of the month - that's about 3 weeks to go from first draft to final. Not bad, eh?

The biggest question now, of course, is 'What next?"