Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Finished....at least for now.

The third draft of my YA novel Fortress is finished. I'd like to say this is going to be the final draft, but I know it won't be. I'm going to have at least one librarian and a few teenagers read it and get their feedback, then take it from there.

So, you ask, "What was the road to the novel?" It started as an expansion of a short story I wrote to get into Clarion in 2004. I left the story alone for two years, going over the instructor feedback and finally deciding it was a bigger story than a few thousand words. I wrote the first draft (about 60,000 words), then revised it a few months later.

In 2007 I sent it to a contest with the Maryland Writers' Association and won second place in the sf/speculative category.

I pretty much sat on it for a year, then decided to revise it again. I actually finished it on Monday and tonight printed it out. It came out -

24 chapters

370 pages

75,000 words

Many Diet Cokes

Even more coffee

So now, how's about some short stories, huh?

4 comments:

John said...

Well done. Send that out.

Andy Wolverton said...

Thanks. I'll take a look at the feedback first, then push it out the door.

I know it's hard (if not next to impossible) with two kids, but let's try to get together sometime soon.

Unknown said...

What short story is it based off of?

Andy Wolverton said...

Hi Eric - It was one of the stories I wrote to get into Clarion, so you guys never saw it - only the instructors.