First draft done!!!

ByJohn Brown

Holy schmoly, has this been a ride. I projected the CURSE OF A DARK GOD to be 140,000 words. When I blew by that, I projected it would be 170,000. Today I just typed the last word of the first draft. It’s 230,000 words. For reference SERVANT OF A DARK GOD is 170,000 words.

The bad news is that while I’m really happy with this draft, it IS a first draft and needs some editing. I’m also behind schedule. I hit 140k words just a few weeks after my original deadline (in March), so I pride myself on knowing how fast I can write, but at that point I had, unknowingly, about a normal novel’s worth of material left to write. Obviously, I haven’t quite figured out yet how to estimate the size of these bigger works. The problem is that instead of getting a month or even two to revise, I’ve got two days. Then I have to turn it in to my editors.

The good news is that my editors haven’t canned me, yet. 🙂 And that they have great insight into story. And that I should have plenty of time to fix and polish this thing to make it shine. I just don’t like turning in first drafts. My goal with book three is to get back on schedule.

Having told you my scheduling woes, I am very excited about the characters and storylines and expect readers to enjoy this as much or more than the first in the series. However, I do wish I could get this process down so that I was 99% of the way there in one draft. There are some authors who can do that. Perhaps that will come with more experience. Until then, I get to enjoy revision.

Here are my stats:

  • 550 hours to write, from pre-draft to the end, not including thinking thinking on walks and drives and discussion time with my wife who saved me thrice.
  • The bulk of the writing was done in a 24 week period. I averaged 17 hours per week during that time. This is on top of my day job.

 For those who don’t know, an average young adult book as from 40,000 to 80,000 words. An average adult novel is from 70,000 – 120,000 words. I’m very pleased I was able to finish this monster. I might not be the fastest writer, but what this tells me is that I should be able to finish two big novels a year if I should ever be so lucky as to go full time.

Share

Similar Posts

  • SERVANT & Smith’s grocery, CURSE, Suspense series, My blog readers

    ByJohn Brown

    Smith’s Grocery Goodness

    Just saw the paperback of SERVANT OF A DARK GOD in a Smith’s grocery in Kaysville, Utah. What this tells me is that SERVANT sold well enough when it was in the Smith’s stores in hardback for them to bring it back a second time. I’m guessing it’s in all the stores in the state. I want to thank all of you who bought it in hardback at the time from Smith’s.

    Now, some of you may be wondering–why is Brown getting so excited about his book being in a grocery store? Here’s why.

    Barnes & Noble is one of my favorite places in the world. But there are only 10 stores in all of Utah. There are 50 Smith’s stores in Utah. There are probably 30-40 Fresh Markets in the same area.  There are 10 Maceys. When a book gets picked up by a grocery store, that ususally means it’s going to sell a LOT more copies. Why? Because more people can see that the thing exists. Furthermore, those displays put the cover face out. A huge draw for buyers that like to browse. So this is great news. And SERVANT might even be in some stores outside of Utah since Smiths’ and Fresh Market are national chains. If you see a copy in your local grocery store, please let me know.  

    And here’s to the day when these books show up in Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, and Costco as well. 

    Curse of a Dark God Status

    A lot of people have been asking about the release date for CURSE. The short answer is that we don’t have a date yet. I will be writing a long entry about it next Monday or Tuesday. Just know that I’m working my keister off to deliver more great entertainment to you.

    Suspense Series Status

    I’m working on the post on structure. It’s about half way done. I hope to publish it over the Thanksgiving weekend.

    You JB blog readers

    I get a few thousand folks coming to this site each month. Most leave very little trace. But there’s nothing like meeting someone new who mentions they found a blog useful or entertaining. I had a great time at the Dragons & Fairy Tales book signing and at the dinner afterwards with the other authors. One gal who came by mentioned she enjoyed the recent post on cauliflower, even though she hasn’t read SERVANT yet. That made the whole evening. Of all the posts . . . Anyway, I’m so glad to hear from my readers. Even if it’s the veggie lovers 🙂

    Share

  • Press Release – Utah Author Selected for Best SFF Stories 2008

    ByJohn Brown

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

    UTAH AUTHOR SELECTED FOR BEST STORIES OF 2008

    Will Present Keys to Successful Fiction at BYU Symposium

    LAKETOWN, UTAH |  February 9, 2009 |  Utah author John Brown’s novelette, “From the Clay of His Heart,” has just been listed as one of the best stories of 2008 by Locus Magazine, the main trade publication for the field of science fiction and fantasy. Locus Magazine selected its list from the hundreds of stories published and reviewed in 2008. Brown’s novelette will also be included in the annual Year’s Best Fantasy anthology edited by Hugo award-winning editor David G. Hartwell.

    “I’m thrilled with the recognition,” says Brown. “Still, I suppose you’d have to be a potato head not to squeeze some drama out of a story that’s a mix of religion, thieves, monsters, and love.”

    Brown will present his views on the keys to successful fiction in a lecture and workshop titled “The 3 Things You Must Learn To Write Killer Stories” at BYU on Friday evening, February 20, 2009 as part of Life, The Universe, & Everything, a symposium on science fiction & fantasy. Admission is free and open to all.

    John Brown is an award-winning Utah author. His epic fantasy, Servant of a Dark God, will be released in September 2009 by Tor, the largest publisher of science fiction and fantasy in the world. For more information on the author visit: http://JohnDBrown.com

    MORE INFO

    Click on image. Artwork for “From the Clay of His Heart” which will appeared in Locus Magazine’s recommended reading for 2008 and will appear in the Year’s Best Fantasy #9 edited by David Hartwell. 

    Share

  • Goodies from Curse of a Dark God

    ByJohn Brown

    Bow to the dark god, ye minions. Here’s some of what’s coming in book 2:

    • The dogmen of Toth and their maulers
    • The Ungar and the one they call Ruin
    • The tanglewoods of the woodikin
    • Firesteeds
    • Gloryweaves
    • Nashrud the hunter
    • And last, but not least, the Orange-eyed priest of Mungo

    The end is in sight on the first draft of book 2 in the Dark God series, and because this one has been a roller coaster, I had to post some of the coolness before I have to go back into frantic mode. My word count estimates for this book have been so consistently off it hasn’t been funny. Literally. It’s made me panic and stress. It should clock in around 220k. And then it’s going to be cut, cut, cut.

    In the meantime…dogmen of Toth (give it the James Earl Jones).

    Oh, baby.

    Share

  • Announcing a collaboration with NY Time bestselling author Larry Correia

    ByJohn Brown

    So I signed the contracts and put them in the mail today–I’m officially doing a collaboration with Larry Correia.

    This is an extension of the novel that we sketched for the 2015 LTUE presentation we did together called “How to Build an Action Plot.”

    Basically we took pirates and smugglers, put them in space, added in a nice helping of giant robots, huge aliens, space ships, nasty warlords, organized crime, and a government you don’t want to mess with, then stirred.

    It’s going to rock.

    You can see the materials for the presentation here. And read more about the collaboration in Larry’s post.

    Please note that we started our novel sketch by asking Larry’s ten-year-old son, “Hey, what’s awesome?”

    He replied without hesitation, “Giant robots, bandits, and murderers.”

    And we took it from there.

    Share

  • My LTUE schedule

    ByJohn Brown

    Folks, I love LTUE. Love it. Alas, I will only be able to attend Friday. But I can’t wait to listen, present, meet new folks, and catch up with old friends. If you’re a writer in the area–whatever genre it doesn’t matter–you’re going to want to come. Link out to the site to see all the authors that are going to be there. Here’s my schedule.

    Date & Time Event Type Area Notes
    Thursday – Saturday, Februrary 17 – 19, 2011 Science Fiction & Fantasy & Writing convention Provo, UT Life the Universe & Everything held at BYU. It runs Thursday – Saturay, the 17th-19th. I’ll only be able to attend on Friday this year.  This is where SF&F authors, scholars, and fans gather and discuss the genre, writing, and have a whole bunch of fun. Details on the LTUE site. I will be presenting. See the rows below for details. 

    Romance vs. Story with Romantic Elements: Injecting romance into saving the world

    • Panel 
    • John Brown,  Ami Chopine, Stacy Whitman, Lynn Kurland
    • FRIDAY: 12 pm – 1 pm

    Plotstorming from Character: In some cases the plot of a book drives the characters. However, characters that instead drive the plot can make for a more compelling story. In this hour, we focus on how to grow your plot from your main characters.

    • Presentation
    • Paul Genesse (I want to hear what Paul has to say, I think this will be interesting)
    • FRIDAY: 3 PM – 4 PM

    Lessons on Story from THE HUNGER GAMES (and let me tell you, there are a lot of good lessons)

    • Presentation
    • John Brown
    • FRIDAY: 6 PM – 7 PM

    How to Get and Develop Killer Story Ideas

    • Workshop 
    • John Brown & Larry Correia (oh, yeah–it’s the dynamic duo)
    • FRIDAY: 7 PM – 8 PM

    EDIT 2/7/2011 9:45 PM: Scheduled has changed. The session on Hunger Games moved up an hour. And the story idea session moved back from 10 AM to 7 PM.

    Share

4 Comments

  2. Congrats John! I’m really looking forward to reading this beast you’ve fed. I hope you can make it full time, because people that work as hard as you deserve it.

  3. I just started reading “Servant of a Dark God,” (Tor sent me a copy to review) and I gotta say, so far so good. I’m expecting a late night with this one…

Comments are closed.