It is done

The first draft of the crime novel, that is. I am somewhat emotionally and physically exhausted. Writing is hard work. Especially writing as grim as the ending of this thing.

It ended up at 63000 words. Longer than most of Raymond Chandler's classics, but too short to be sellable in today's marketplace. But for the second draft there's still a lot of writing to be done, so it could eventually make it to the 80,000 word mark needed to be sellable. Or not.

Now comes the hard work, going back and backfilling, adding clues and hints, fixing things that didn't work out, adding explication, punching up scenes, adding transitions and beefing up chapters, adding whatever is needed to flesh out the plot. During most of the story I didn't have the slightest idea what was going on, I was just pushing my characters forward to see where they went. That's how I write, if I know where the characters are going, I move them around like marionnettes rather than letting them live and breathe, I'm just not the outline kinda guy. Now that I know where they went, it's time to make sure I properly fill in where they were, and tie up any loose ends at the end. For one thing, one of the murderers isn't introduced until shortly before I kill him (well, actually, he got one line in chapter 10, but no hint there that he was more than just a walk-on). Well, let's just say there's a lot of work to be done before this first draft is an actual novel.

Anyhow: If anybody would like to review the first draft, drop me a line in EMAIL.

-BT