I have been incommunicado, I know - intensely focused on writing as the critical finale sequence rolls on. There are lot - a whole lot - of intersecting details that I’ve needed to cross check, and passages to work over to be certain no tiny bit gets left out. Work is going extremely well, but it is carefully slow.
I will be posting a page countdown as I go, when I can. (Note: I do not have the internet connected when I write, period, to avoid distractions, so just checking in here is an infrequent and deliberate effort/to keep me fiercely on track).
I have crossed the 800 page mark - today’s draft count is (precisely) 817/undergoing a slight slow down due to a scene shift/and tightening up continuity issues for what will follow so the stitches are all laid in place.
Target for a finished draft of a Light and Shadows novel is always 1000 pages (before I do the melt down on the language/tighten up for a finished manuscript)…some run over this, some run under, so don’t take this as a ‘fixed’ progress bar - let’s see in ‘real time’ if I can grant you a view of each increment of actual progress.
Note: at this stage of the writing I have some chapter files opened up/with ‘placeholder’ notes typed in where I’ve recorded fragments and bits that occurred out of sequence into chronological order so I don’t omit those bits of inspiration as I compose the draft for those sections. These ‘pages’ are not included in the draft count given to date.
The current scene being written is the latter half of sub chapter 12a.
Yesterday/lost part to shopping for food/tweaked a few details, letting the undone bits gel.
Today - surge forward. Crude draft of 12a completed at 20 pages, which sets the to the instant page count at 822. This is a very good day.
The draft for this section will need refinement and tweaking before I am satisfied to send it for test/I have sketched notes typed into the file for 12b. Tomorrow could be a tweak day, or may launch a tentative push into the opening bits of 12b. Or both.
I did a little touch up on the final scene in subchapter 12a, with more left to go.
Plunged ahead into 12b, with two three page days (and notes ticking off bits to come/with a few defined fragments). That stacks the draft up to 828.
If this seems slow, yes…there are, in this section, multiple events that are linked in reaction and occurring in simultaneity…so I have to play them one into the next/to make a ‘linear’ read, there’s a fussy bit of care being taken with the order in which they’re presented.
Forgot to answer Annette’s question: the draft for Peril’s Gate ran somewhere into the neighborhood of 1200, or, that may have been the final version (it’s been awhile to remember precisely). Longest draft ever was Ships/Warhost in original form (as one volume) - that one ran 1600 pages, but, not being in the league of Jordan’s numbers, the publisher chose to split it…hence, you got that installment in two volumes.
Thanks for the update Janny, and the info. I will still sit here and hope for a nice thick Song of the Mysteries to finish the series off. No harm hoping.
The book will be only as long as the story demands. It will not be shorter, or longer, but only the length it requires to strike all the right notes.
Size can, in fact, work against it - bloat makes the plot drag, and worse, eats the profit margin the publisher requires to maintain operation…one of the ‘strikes’ against this series has been: that required margin is way harder to meet…
Status Update: today’s draft count is 831/with some ‘revision work’ also accomplished in the raw bits that need to be smoothed before test readers see it.
Into Chapter Set 13 now, with about 140 pages draft to target length at finish/860 pages in the rearview mirror.
A few announcements:
Voting for the toplist favorite books at r/fantasy closes Tuesday, your chance to get your ten favorites on the list!!!
I will also be doing an AMA tomorrow - get your questions in and I will answer - the post goes up in the morning Eastern Time/I return at 7 PM to start answering/all late entries will be accommodated.
Master of Whitestorm’s e book is ON SALE today in the USA and Canada.
Now I go back to (hair pulling) writing on of THE peak moments in Song of the Mysteries.
Thanks, Annette, for posting the updates from Janny’s Twitter feed! Her primary computer is frozen in time to a specific web browser version that is no longer compatible with the forum, so she can only post here directly from Don’s computer. We will eventually solve the tech issue, but the writing always takes precedence.
Song of the Mysteries draft progress update: Closing in on the last scene on chapter 14 set today, this one will explode a few heads… Last Stage of Finale kicks off in Set 15, so, nearer and nearer to closure.