1st Draft of my Second Novel -- FINISHED!

That's right!  I finally finished the first draft of my second novel tentatively titled Through the In Between, Hell Awaits.  It's such a great feeling to type that single word concluding months of work: 'end', though it is far from over.  I'll sit on it for a month or two while I finish editing Through the Eyes of the Undead 2 and write some short stories and two novellas I have been outlining.  I have to be sure this novel is the furthest thing from my mind before I begin the re-writes.  I like to have fresh eyes when I begin editing novel length work.

I did two new things this time that I have never done before with my first novel or the four novellas I have written.  For one, I didn't look at the word count once.  I was so eager to see how many words the book ended up as, that I checked the word count about .000001 seconds after typing 'end'.  88K words.  400 double spaced pages.  Not too bad considering my debut novel was about 70K words.  I was shooting for about 90K, so I am very pleased with the way things turned out.  The other method I tried that contradicts the way I write large works was that I didn't take any notes.  Not one.  Let me tell you, that's something I will never do again.  Notes are such a great reference while writing a novella or novel.  At times I had to scroll through the pages looking for a name or description, something that would have been included in my notes and easy to find had I been taking notes.  Now, when I do the re-writes, I will have to take the notes I should have been taking as I wrote the book.  I'll always take notes from her on out, but I think I will continue ignore the word count.  I truly find the obsession with word counts to be distracting.  I don't base my progress on word counts like so many writers do.  I find working without keeping track of the word count is far more beneficial. 

Cheers!