Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Last Chapter...

I am down to the last chapter of the book, which also happens to be a chapter that I have to write completely from scratch. Even after I finish that chapter, I am not completely done. I have to change the location of several scenes from one city in the U.S. to a different city -- which makes me somewhat nervous since (A.) I've never been to this city and (B.) it will be a significantly different culture from what I grew up in. Definitely moving outside my comfort zone! However, I am confident that I can pull it off. I also have to do a complete read through of the book to check for inconsistencies and typos.

Even after I am done, I am extremely nervous about letting the book go back to my editor. She's a tough critic and I've been warned by several other authors that she edits that they have had to go through and complete heavy edits more than once on their first books. I am really hoping to avoid this fate, but I will do whatever it takes to make this a great book.

But I thought I would reveal some interesting stats in regards to my edits:

1. Prior to the edits, the book was roughly 95,000 words long. Without the final chapter, the word count now sits at more than 113,000 words.

2. Three completely new chapters have been added along with a few new scenes.

3. One cool minor character was added, and a character I had saved for book 3 was moved up to Nightwalker.

4. Out of three distinct locations, two were completely changed and one new location has been added to bring the total to four.

5. My scrap pile (or sections of text that were deleted from the book but saved in case I might be able to add back in later) now comes in at 6,600 words.

6. And the biggest change: I had to create a new villain for the entire series.

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