This is my second draft and most people I have shown it to just saw the first draft. I'm trying to get as many people to read it as possible, before it's in a fit state to send to a publisher. I just don't know when it will be "ready". It's 157000 words (or thereabouts). Is that too long?

I'm also doing loads of editing on the thing as well. I just keep seeing things that aren't really right.

You're right lol, maybe I need to take another break of a few weeks from it! :D I've got a few other things on the go at the moment as well, mostly science fiction.

And yep, I need to get someone to take a look at those passages.



<Added>

added: the person who said they couldn't put it down read my second draft, so I'm really pleased about it.

Is it a good idea to put it somewhere like Fictionpress so that people on the internet can give their comments?

160,000 thousand is rather long, if someone's looking for a reason to reject it. Most adult novels fall into the range, say, 80-120,000, though at the more literary end of the spectrum it could be say 65-140,000. BUT some genres seem happy to be at the fatter end of the range, and I'd say sci-fi/speculative fiction is one of them. Hist fic's another.

But fundamentally a book should be as long as it needs to be. If every single one of those 160,000 is really earning its keep, readers won't notice that it's too long, they'll be too busy trying to find out What Happened Next. It's only when there are too many words that aren't working hard enough, or are duplicating other words, that readers start thinking, 'Cor, this is going on a bit...'

It might be sensible to go through the whole thing, thinking about nothing except whether each word and sentence and scene does actually need to be there, or you could possibly say the same thing in a more condensed way. It's surprising how much tighter the whole book will read once you've done that. If you do it on paper, and then work on a new copy rather than the original files, and decide you don't like it, you can always compare the two on the computer, and restore any cuts you really think were a mistake.

Emma

Is it a good idea to put it somewhere like Fictionpress so that people on the internet can give their comments?

I have not heard of Fictionpress (are you based in the US?), but two respected ones in the UK are You Write On (set up by the Arts Council) and a new one called Authonomy (set up by HarperCollins).
Such sites can be useful if you want to upload large tranches of your novel for an overview of the plot, etc, (As opposed to somewhere like WriteWords where most uploads are in the 2K range, and get down to the nitty gritty of technique, etc).

If you do use a site such as Fictionpress, my advice is don't upload the whole novel, and remove it before submitting to agents.


- NaomiM

Nah, I live in the UK Yeah, I was thinking of just uploading Part 1, because I don't think I've really looked at it properly in terms of things that need to change.

I have managed to reduce the length to about 137 000 words now! yay! Thanks to whoever suggested Authonomy by the way; I'm really enjoying it.

xxx