# First draft completed!



## Benjamin Clayborne (Oct 17, 2011)

The first draft of my WIP is done! 87 days, 34 chapters (32 + prologue + epilogue), 164,396 words (not counting rewriting the prologue and ch01-04 from scratch, or some other editing along the way). That's an average of 1,889 words per day, which would just barely keep me above NaNoWriMo's goal ;-)

(I put chapter 2 up *in the Showcase a few weeks ago* in case anyone's still interested.)

Now to descend into rewrite hell.


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## The Blue Lotus (Oct 17, 2011)

Congrats Ben! So happy for you.


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## mythique890 (Oct 17, 2011)

That's awesome!  Good job!!


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## Dragonie (Oct 17, 2011)

Congratulations! That's an amazing achievement, especially in how quickly you wrote so many words! I still haven't built up that kind of writing stamina, unfortunately.


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## HÃ«radÃ¯n (Oct 20, 2011)

nice! I plan to be done with my rough draft of my histories in the next few weeks, it is not as long as yours, but it is still quite a bit to write. Congrats again.


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## Paul (Nov 8, 2011)

Congratulations Ben! I find it difficult to write fast so fast as you do, but from today, i'll practice to be as fast as you.
 Congratulations once again.


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## Kelise (Nov 9, 2011)

Congratulations  That's a very awesome thing to accomplish


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## Benjamin Clayborne (Nov 9, 2011)

After a few weeks of rewriting, the novel's down to 157,563 words. This whole phase has been slow. Rewriting is haaaaard. :-\


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## Telcontar (Nov 10, 2011)

Pheeeeeeww. That's one helluva pace. Congrats.


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## TWErvin2 (Nov 12, 2011)

Hang in there, Benjamin and keep doing what it takes to get your novel in the absolute best shape you can.


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## Thalian (Nov 13, 2011)

Congratulations, and as many have said that is a pretty incredible pace. How many hours would you say you averaged per day? I don't have the lifestyle to be able to set too much time aside, yet if I sit down and am writing something fast paced such as a battle scene I can probably get 2000 words in a couple hours.


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## Benjamin Clayborne (Nov 13, 2011)

Thalian said:


> Congratulations, and as many have said that is a pretty incredible pace. How many hours would you say you averaged per day?



2-3 hours per day during that period. Usually at night after the wife and kids were in bed. Sometimes in the morning after the wife left for work and the kids left for school, I'd have an hour or so before I had to go to work.


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## Thalian (Nov 13, 2011)

I wish I could put that much time into writing, but at this point in my life its not going to happen!


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## FictionQuest (Nov 14, 2011)

Did you post chapter 1 somewhere? I found chapter 2 but I like to start at the beginning if possible


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## Benjamin Clayborne (Nov 14, 2011)

I didn't yet, I actually want to revise it a little bit more before posting it. (Although right now I'm hard at work on the final third of the book, so I'm not sure when I'll get to that.)

I do plan to offer all MS members a free copy of the book when I'm done with it, though ;-)


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## Legendary Sidekick (Nov 15, 2011)

Benjamin Clayborne said:


> The first draft of my WIP is done! 87 days, 34 chapters (32 + prologue + epilogue), 164,396 words (not counting rewriting the prologue and ch01-04 from scratch, or some other editing along the way). That's an average of 1,889 words per day


What?


Benjamin Clayborne said:


> 87 days, 164,396 words. That's an average of 1,889 words per day


That's what I thought you said.

It took me a year and five days to write 157k words. (kilowords?) Granted, my first daughter was born and I left Hong Kong to move to the US in that year, but still... yours is an impressive pace.

I don't know if I can match an almost-2000-words-a-day average, but as a teacher with summers off, this gives me hope--especially since you mentioned you also have a wife and kids!

Congratulations!


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## Lucas Delrose (Nov 19, 2011)

Awesome work!!! Well done!


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## Seth son of Tom (Nov 22, 2011)

that's great man! keep up the good work!


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