Milestones

Hi, everyone!

It’s been a looooooong time since my last post. Ever since taking up my work here in rural Ontario, time has been scarce. That’s meant less time for blogging and writing, but NOT a halt to production of “Door to Altharia.” Whenever I am able to, I am plinking away at my laptop and agonizing over verb choices.

Anywho, I wanted to check in and let everyone know that I’ve passed a benchmark I set for myself when I began writing Alec’s story.

80K

DtA is officially 80,000 words long! This might not seem like the hugest deal, but 80K words is often used as the industry standard for the official baseline length of a novel.

I set out to write a novel, and would you look at that – it’s happening! Exciting times, indeed!

“Well,” you might say, “80K words now, but what about after it’s edited?” And you’d be right.

But I envision the full original manuscript of DtA to be about 120K words, and, after editing, I’d hope for it to be in that 100K-110K word range. For those of you who think in pages instead of wordcounts, that’s the size of a 400-450 page paperback.

All of this is subject to change, of course, and the book may even grow (I hope not), but for now, a major milestone has been passed and I’m encouraged.

Thanks to you all for your support and your patience (some of you have been waiting a long time now, I know 😉 ). The story is building and growing, and I’m excited to develop the final third of “Door to Altharia.”

Be well!

Martyn McGrath