Editing

The first draft of my relatively short story, a mere 40,000 words or so which will be around 200 pages in e-book format has been completed. It is an amazing feeling even to have completed that many words, though I am well aware that many full length books will be twice that number.

I have completed the first draft in around 18 days, which doesn’t seem that many. That is just the time of actual writing though. Much of the preparation and research was done well in advance. As I look back over the last few weeks and mentally tot up the actual number of hours I have spent on this – still small compared to some – project, I realize it is actually quite a bit of time that has been taken.

The first two weeks of the project I was still at work. By the time I had finished work, fed my daughter and spent a little quality time with her before she disappeared upstairs into the dark abyss that is her room, I was still putting in six or seven hours a day. With the pleasant weather we have been experiencing here in the UK and the week off work I have had to coincide with the school break, I have rarely seen my daughter as she played out with friends which allowed me to spend upwards of twelve to fifteen hours at a time writing and re-writing.

In total I would imagine that I have spent more than 100 hours just writing, editing and re-writing. With my average 60 wpm typing level that means I should have written around 360,000 words in the 100 hours. An astounding 9 times more than I currently have.

Either way I am pleased with how it turned out and I have now passed it over for review to my editor, commonly known as my “mother”. I have asked her to be blunt and honest with her review and knowing her she shall be. I will wait nervously to hear from her. Any future writing I do will hinge on her words. I can honestly say that showing your work to someone you care about and respect is probably the hardest thing about this whole process.