1st Novel, 1st Draft!

My first draft of Dark House is sitting at 59,400 words right now. I have three chapters left to write, tops. I’m almost done with the first draft of my first novel!

This is only one step in the labor intensive process of publishing a book. However, it’s a huge step, and I’ll be glad when I’ve accomplished it.

When I started writing Dark House, I had just decided, after years of deliberation about what I should do with my life, that I should be a writer. When I started this book, I knew I had to finish it. I also knew that I had quit so many other things I started, my track record was seriously against me.

The fact that I never even considered abandoning this book, and have gotten so much enjoyment out of writing it, confirms that I should write. I haven’t stuck with something that wasn’t required of me for a whole year ever, to my memory.

My self-imposed deadline for finishing the draft is May 26th. At this pace, I have to write an average of 500 words per day, which should be doable.

The most exciting thing about all of this is that I’ll be so much closer to sharing this story with everyone. It’s been really entertaining to write, so I hope people will enjoy reading it.

In other writing developments, I came up with a story idea yesterday that I’m really excited about. So excited that I started outlining it on my lunch break, when I should have been working on Dark House. I thought that maybe I could work on both stories at the same time, but I found it too mentally exhausting to switch between two different worlds. Three, if you count real life, lol.

Now that publishing is getting close than ever, I’m increasing my online presence. I’m trying to keep my expectations low, because my top priority needs to be working on Dark House until it’s a finished product. Then, I can focus on promotion for a bit. For now, I’m posting nearly every day on my Instagram (@kirajcole), and I’m putting out blog posts on Wednesdays.