Where are you in your book?

I've just started over (again, but I've learned some really helpful new techniques and there's a reasonable chance I'll actually finish this time). I'm starting with Ragnar's nightmares, because even though the first one is a few chapters in, they are the driving force behind one of the two plots, and it will help me with all the rest if I write those first.

I'm still typing up the first nightmare, and I've left it hanging at the point immediately before he gets shot, because it's all downhill from there and my dinner is in the oven.

 

I'm still stuck on the rewrite of chapter six. Which sucks, but I've been writing short stories in the universe I made to keep these fingers typing. Also helps expand on the setting, so no complaints here.

 

I'm (kind of) the main character.

Oh wait, you meant my progress. Well, planning stage. I got many ideas, not many ways to put them together in a comprehensive whole I'm afraid.

 

I've been writing it for about 5 years and I think I'm on the 5th or so draft.

Curse Previous-Me for thinking what the world really needed was a lovechild of Game of Thrones and Nineteen Eighty-Four.

My next book will have two main characters and a small supporting cast. >.>

 

I write short stories and, for my current project, I'm two stories into what I hope will be a ten story book.

 

The first draft of my second novel is tucked away while I'm editing my translated first novel. It's nice not having to worry about making the story work; that part's already done. No wordcount anxiety anymore either. The translation itself added 3K words and with only one chapter fully edited, it has gone up by another thousand.

 

I finally broke through my anxiety around revising Gravity and am happy to report I am 2/3 of the way through editing the MS. I've made more progress in the past 3 days than in the past 3 months! If I don't f*ck it up and start slacking again I think I'll be able to submit it to my publisher by the end of the month.

 

I passed 10k words yesterday. Another day, another thousand words... I have no idea how long my book will be, but I'd like to aim for at least 70-90k. Or I could do two 50k word stories, and just keep it in the same universe.

 

Snuck past 50K words, in fact at 56K. Still struggling with the timeline for my people coming out of China. Seems like I will just let the gaps lie, get them embroiled in one the historical events with fixed dates, then jigger the dates to make things come out right. Next is to cover beginning of the war, Trajan taking one of my fictional characters (senator) with him to Athens to confront the Parthians over Armenia. I think I will do that on the Acropolis, since the actual setting is unknown. That way the Parthians will arrive to meet with Trajan after a long hike up the mountain on a hot summer day, breathing hard and sweaty.

@graveleye, good luck on the query. The trick is to tailor each query to the specific agent you are targeting... extremely time-consuming. I recommend QueryTracker on-line which lists agents and companies by genre, links to their websites, etc. A real time saver if you haven't used it yet.

 

I'm releasing each chapter as a web novel which is allowing me to basically do a third draft. Once I've released the whole book, I'll do a four and final draft before releasing it as volume one.

 

At the very end -- chapter 63 I've been stuck there for a couple of weeks trying to wrap up the dog gone thing. I'm probably going to tack on an ending and fix the problem in the second draft as is right now, I feel like I could have ended it six chapters ago but I didn't stay on track. No worries though. I came up with a few great scenes since then, they'll just have to be shifted. Looking forward to editing -- no sarcasm.

 

Having finished Chapter 8 today, I'm done with Act 1. Currently sitting at about 38k words.

 

In the middle of chapter 28. The chapters aren't that long, but they sure pack a solid punch. My word count is almost 19k words.

 

Currently, I have some finished stories for my Memoirs of Asylum book and a few in the works. Overall it's nearing completion.

 

Nearly done but with two scenes that are important, dramatic and a complete bugger to write still waiting to be done.

 

honestly @CoyoteKing, I would definitely read something like that. The characters sound interesting as well. In short, I agree with @Tenderiser. so, :3

As to where I am in my book: At the current moment, I'm about at 17,000 words. All my main characters have met, and now making a plan to solve their problem. I realized when I came to my recent stop of my novel that I have NO IDEA on how to continue without making it straight forward, no stakes, and overall, boring. I'm trying to make possible stakes and considering on making subplots for my novel. I'm at least considering on making a romance subplot that may or may not end with the characters being together. I'm pondering on if I should improve the beginning and writing some snip-its on how to achieve it. I'm basically spaz writing at this point to actually get my garbage writing on the page so I can start rewriting it and thinking of how to improve the story. Not to mention make the story connect with the world I'm creating for it with new ideas on how my characters are and interact with each other and learn about them more. Sooooooooooooooooo yeah, lol.

 

All of this is totally where I'm at, especially the bolded bit! But damn, it sure is hard to make yourself write stuff you know is bad. :C

 

I can sympathize with this as well, @SoulGalaxyWolf ! I have the main plot and characters all fleshed out, but it's the first draft so I'm also "spazz-writing", improvising parts that are boring and doing "what if" scenarios to try to spice things up/make it exciting. I remember that I was unsure about pairing some of my characters together romantically as well...but now that I've decided upon it and got to the current point in my story, I can't imagine it happening any differently. You could always see the romance sub-plot to the end and then take a step back and decide later if it's worth it.

 

Made it to 60K words, despite being on vacation in the UK. The last (actual) confrontation between Trajan and the Parthians took place in Athens, but since there are few details of who on the Parthian side attended the meeting, threats/counterthreats, or exactly where it took place, I had plenty of artistic license to work with without violating the historical narrative. I held it on top of the acropolis at the base of the 30 ft statue of Athena next to the Parthenon. And the follow-on, a legion commander getting ready to brief the troops on almost certain war, concerned that the Roman track record against the Parthians is pretty much written in Roman blood. Complicated by the fact that, despite both of their efforts to avoid being in the same unit, his son is one of his very junior tribunes.

 

Well, after seven years of slaving away I've finally finished page one of my book.
Time to start page two.

 

I feel that way sometimes.

 

I have a completed first draft that needs review and editing. This book is the first in (what I hope to be) an ongoing series of adventure tales involving adolescent boys, one adolescent girl, and a host of ancillary characters. I started writing this story at the request of my two grandsons who have bugged me for years to write a story for them. I've always written very short (1-2) page stories for them and also written some songs about/for them which they have always enjoyed.

The characters are loosely based on my grandkids and family members so I know it holds their attention. Whether or not other kids enjoy the story is yet to be seen but several adults that have read it have given me very positive feedback. Maybe it's the "don't want to hurt a friend's feelings" or they truly liked the story, I don't know.

The story is currently about 56,646 words.

I also see in some posts that people have "beta readers". I'm really a novice writer, this is my first serious attempt at writing anything of substance. How would I get "beta readers" to review my story?

Thanks for any input.

 

That's the most accurate rough estimate I've ever seen.

 

Camp Nanowrimo is coming up, and I've opted for joining a cabin of others revising their novel. I've left my novel to stew for a few months now, handed what I have over to an alpha reader. And its getting to the point now where I'm ready to return to it. It's been through three to four drafts already, and I have the distinct feeling that when I return to it, it's not going to be good enough to progress to that elusive editing phase.

In the meantime, I have started another project, and have been steadily building up the plot and I've got it quite well-mapped out, but haven't had much traction in the actual writing.