It's done! Last night I typed the last words of my first novel: Lilith Rising. It finished at about 440 pages. I wasn't really sure how I felt about it at first (aside from the obvious pure elation), so I wanted to let my feelings simmer a bit before I blogged about it.
The pride I feel for my accomplishment is still in the forefront of my mind, but if I dig a little deeper there's the knowledge that I still have several more milestone's to cross before I can really relax. First, I've got to edit it, which will consist of a lot of chopping, particularly in the first half. I was still discovering my voice as a writer during that time, so I need to also retype it so that it's writing style is consistent. My goal is to try to cut it to around 350 pages, which will pose a hard challenge. I refuse to compromise my story to get it there, so we will see what I end up with.
After I edit it, I will be giving it to a good friend of mine to do a second edit. After she makes her suggestions, I will do a final edit. Then will come the task of sending off to various literary agencies.
Being a new author, this is the scariest part to me. I'm choosing to pursue the agent route because they know what mistakes not to make, and will push for the best deals, considering they make money when you make money. While I'm doing the editing I plan to do even more research on suggestions, tips, and anything else that I can find that will be useful to me during the process of trying to get to that end result...publication.
I will probably begin the second in the series as soon as the first edit is done. That story has been begging to be written since I was halfway done with the first one, and I don't want my muse to lose her momentum.
I believe that I've written something fresh that (if it becomes a successful publication) will add something to this genre of storytelling. I hope that my readers will too.
More to come...
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