Word Count Achieved!

I saw something interesting on my novel writing software today. It said "Word Count Achieved" and a sudden wave of relief hit me. I had actually done it. I set out to write an 80,000 word novel on March 1, 2009. My first milestone as a writer, and I can't be more thrilled at the moment. It took me less than a year, and I'm currently at 80,058 words...and still going.

I'm not really sure where the 80,000 word mark came from. I think I remember reading somewhere that the average novel was between 80-125,000 words, so I shot for the low mark on my first draft. I always thought that I would struggle to hit that goal, but, like I said I'm still going.

I'm about to get into Act 3 of the novel. I read in James Scott Bell's "Plot and Structure" book on novel writing (which is an excellent read, by the way) that one should structure their novels into three acts. I set out to write Act 1 as 20,000 words, Act 2 to be 40,000, with Act 3 cleaning up the mess with the last 20,000 words. Ha ha, how I underestimated myself.

I've just gotten to the big reveal of my novel. I'm working on that right now. I haven't gone back and read anything from the beginning, I've just been plowing forward. It'll be interesting to see how it all fits together (or doesn't :)) when I read the whole thing from start to finish and start working on the 2nd draft.

So, I've reached my milestone. To all who might be reading this are struggling through writer's block or whatever, keep at it. It'll come to you. You've just got to persevere.

Until next time, happy writing. Now, I've got to get back to work.