I‘m about 13k words into my new book, The Ikessar Falcon (estimated completion at 150,000 words), which picks up exactly where The Wolf of Oren-yaro (which finished at 112,000 words and is currently in the hands of beta-readers) left off. Unlike The Wolf of Oren-yaro, where my daily word count (for six days a week) was closer to 1,500 words, my daily word count is now back at 2,000, just like Sapphire’s Flight days (which is less than six months ago and feels like a lifetime already). Sapphire’s Flight FYI was 190,000 words, 80% of which was completed within four months.
I find it a lot easier to write more when I’ve already established a story. The plot has had a lot of time to simmer in my brain (usually via montage complete with music) and I know exactly the sort of character interactions I want to have, since I progress my plots through characters. I did have an outline for The Ikessar Falcon but at this point I’ve almost scrapped it for the first act.
If I keep at this pace, I’ll finish this manuscript by July, marking it the third epic-length novel I would have finished within a year.
Mind you, I only write this fast because I’m a bum currently unemployed at home taking care of my children right now. My normal pace is a book a year (which was how Jaeth’s Eye and Aina’s Breath got finished).
I’m liking this writing speed a whole lot better. Usually, my “writer’s blocks” come as a result of massive self-doubt gnawing away at me like a lion chewing on a gazelle. Writing a lot is very exhausting and doesn’t leave me a lot of time for anything else (not even hobbies…my video gaming and reading has taken a massive backslide, because I usually don’t feel like doing anything in the evening but take a walk and sleep). Mind you, I type fast too, so I can do 2,000 mindless words in less than an hour (just like how I write on this blog)…but writing epic fantasy is a whole different beast altogether, and I can easily spend 6-12 hours each day on half a chapter just trying to iron details out and making sure I’m not shooting myself in the foot (which inevitably happens, anyway).
I’m planning to continue at this pace and have the third book in this series, The Xiaran Mongrel (estimated at 150,000-190,000 words), complete to the 1st draft by the end of the year.
Then I’m going to do it all over again and finish the second part of this double-trilogy next year.
I think somewhere in the back of my head, my plan is to outwrite Brandon Sanderson. Hopefully, this doesn’t kill me first.
