Wednesday, December 01, 2004

End of the Beginning

I've reached the next stage.
Yesterday I finished the first draft of... oops, nearly gave away the title there.
It's the sequel to Jimmy Coates: Killer, (published by HarperCollins on April 4th 2OO5 in the UK, on June 1st in the USA, where the title will be Jimmy Coates: Assassin) and it now exists!
This feels great. I know it needs a lot of work - in fact this is where the real work starts - but it is still a comfort to know that the story is written down, end to end, the way I see it at the moment.
I'm quite excited.
Want some stats? OK, here goes:
The first draft is 57,9O8 words long.
I started writing it on September 15th and finished yesterday, November 3Oth.
This is a period of 77 days.
I worked on 38 of those days, giving me an average 'words per day' rate of 1523.89 (well below my target of 2OOO).
My most productive day was October 27th, when I listened to Oscar Peterson and Lamont Dozier, ate an omelette for lunch and wrote 2,461 words.
My least productive working day was October 11th, when I listened to The Supremes (the 197O's Supremes - not Diana Ross) and Miles Davis (I think it was the 1964 live CD), I ate sausages for lunch and wrote only 479 words.
But sausages were also responsible for one of my best days, November 8th, when I listened to Sting, Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie, and wrote 2,412 words.
I listened to Oscar Peterson on 2O of my 38 writing days.
I made sushi for lunch on 14 of my 38 writing days.
I only ate sausages twice.

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