{"id":965,"date":"2014-07-27T15:22:30","date_gmt":"2014-07-27T15:22:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/?p=965"},"modified":"2014-07-27T15:22:47","modified_gmt":"2014-07-27T15:22:47","slug":"writing-progress-report-third-book-finished","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/2014\/07\/writing-progress-report-third-book-finished\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing progress report: third book finished"},"content":{"rendered":"

So another one bites the dust. Today I typed \u2018The End\u2019 on \u2018The Mages of Bennamore\u2019, the third epic fantasy set in the Brightmoon world. Because I like statistics, here are some numbers for the three books for comparison:<\/span><\/p>\n

Book 1: \u2018The Plains of Kallanash\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Elapsed writing time: 1 year<\/span><\/p>\n

Total days of writing: 190<\/span><\/p>\n

Total words: 220,000<\/span><\/p>\n

Average words per writing day: 1,100<\/span><\/p>\n

Chapters: 58<\/span><\/p>\n

Book 2: \u2018The Fire Mages\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Elapsed writing time: 5 months<\/span><\/p>\n

Total days of writing: 90<\/span><\/p>\n

Total words: 151,000<\/span><\/p>\n

Average words per writing day: 1,700<\/span><\/p>\n

Chapters: 44<\/span><\/p>\n

Book 3: \u2018The Mages of Bennamore\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Elapsed writing time: 7 months<\/span><\/p>\n

Total days of writing: 119<\/span><\/p>\n

Total words: 157,000<\/span><\/p>\n

Average words per writing day: 1,300<\/span><\/p>\n

Chapters: 44<\/span><\/p>\n

This third book is much the same size as the second, but it took 7 months overall instead of 5 months, largely because I was also working on revising \u2018The Plains of Kallanash\u2019. There\u2019s no doubt that it\u2019s easier and more productive (for me, anyway) to work exclusively on one book at a time, especially for first draft work. For the last two or three weeks, since Kallanash went off to the proofreader, I\u2019ve been working flat out on finishing this one off, with the result that I\u2019ve had a much higher daily word count, and it\u2019s been easier to keep track of the various strands of the plot in my head. I love getting immersed in a story like that, although I\u2019m not sure it\u2019s good for me: I go to bed only when I\u2019m cross-eyed with tiredness, lie awake anyway, thinking about plot options, wake up early and start again. This writing lark would be much easier if I didn\u2019t have so many other things to do during the day, like boring real world stuff. Who needs meals anyway? Or clean clothes? Dust, what dust?<\/span><\/p>\n

This one will be left to brew for a while – several months at least. So what\u2019s next? Well, a rest from writing first of all (and try to reduce the size of the ironing pile). Then \u2018The Fire Mages\u2019 is going off to Scribophile to be torn to shreds by my eagle-eyed crit-buddies. Its cover art is already scheduled. And Kallanash will be back from the proofreader soon for final tidy-up editing and formatting ready for ARCs in August and publication (eek!) in September.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the next new work, I\u2019m thinking of resuscitating something that predates all the three completed works, but was abandoned when I started Kallanash. I already have 120,000 words (over 30 chapters) of it, but (huge but) it needs a lot of work to bring it into line with the others in the Brightmoon world. Firstly, there are world-building aspects that are no longer canonical, so many details of the background have to be changed. All the names have to be revised (I used modern names, which just doesn\u2019t work). Plus my writing style has changed considerably. Or, to put it another way, I was a terrible writer back then. So a lot of work. But I love the story, the premise and the characters, so I want to do it eventually.<\/span><\/p>\n

But for today, I\u2019m just going to relax and enjoy getting to the end of another book. A very satisfying moment.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So another one bites the dust. Today I typed \u2018The End\u2019 on \u2018The Mages of Bennamore\u2019, the third epic fantasy set in the Brightmoon world. Because I like statistics, here are some numbers for the three books for comparison: Book 1: \u2018The Plains of Kallanash\u2019 Elapsed writing time: 1 year Total days of writing: 190 Total words: 220,000 Average words per writing day: 1,100 Chapters: 58 Book 2: \u2018The Fire Mages\u2019 Elapsed writing time: 5 months Total days of writing: 90 Total words: 151,000 Average words per writing day: 1,700 Chapters: 44 Book 3: \u2018The Mages of Bennamore\u2019 Elapsed writing time: 7 months Total days of writing: 119 Total words: 157,000 Average words per writing day: 1,300 Chapters: 44 This third book is much the same size as the second, but it took 7 months overall instead of 5 months, largely because I was also working on revising \u2018The Plains […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,15,61,13,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=965"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":967,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965\/revisions\/967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}