Writing Blog

20220814 Draft Done!

August 14, 2022, 12:30pm

So... I finished the first draft of the latest book. Clocking in at around 36.5k words, it's not quite as long as I would have liked, but I don't want to add words for the sake of adding words. I did a book mock-up and it sits at around 160 printed pages, including photographs. So it's not a tiny book, but also not a long-winded slog.

Now comes the next hard bit - finding a beta reader. I have had an alpha reader go over it before I completed this draft and he made me add an author's note at the start, but he doesn't want to read it again. It made him reflect, he said, and he was not happy where his mind went. He said it was nothing against the writing (though I can't be sure...) but it was just the fact he realised how much of his own youth was gone. That's what I want, but I don't want to depress people. So maybe it needs a shift in tone.

I've not had a lot of non-fiction published (beyond my reviews on Weekend Notes), and so I have no idea of publisher expectations. I do know this particular publisher has a 30-50k word limit for the memoir series I am aiming for, but beyond that I am just writing creative non-fiction like I'm talking at the local pub.

I'm not sure that's how it works. I'll find out eventually, I guess.