Skyler and I finished a first draft of Incrementalists #2 last night. Working title: The Backmeddle. That may change, as may everything else, during revisions. The next step will be to chop scenes, or parts of scenes, that we don’t need. But even after we do that, this book is going to be big. By One True Word Count, she comes in at 135,000 words.
But our girl is tall; she was never meant to weigh 100 lbs. And, more important, she has a healthy body-image. When critics tell her, “You can never be too thin,” she rolls her eyes and just gets on with her life. She is a strong girl, and likes it that way. She chooses not to carry any fat–she wants everything to be there for a reason–but she will certainly not listen to those who tell her what she is supposed to look like. She runs the hurdles of intertwining plots, she swims through complex themes, she lifts the weight of being a sequel, and she climbs rocks of multi-layered character. She’ll look like she can do all of those things, and she sees no reason to pretend otherwise. When we have finished her training, she will be exactly as big as she wants to be, and anyone who thinks she should be smaller can go fuck himself.
Skyler and I are not done helping our girl train, and become everything she is able to be, but she already knows herself, and we’re very proud of her.
Proud of her? As well you should be! Myself, I cannot wait to gaze upon her perfect form.
Sounds good. How long do you expect revisions to take prior to handing it over to Tor?
And now I wish there had been a session at VP on how to cut. My first-novel WIP is at 155,000 words and that’s *after* I cut the outline in half to make a duology of it. Sigh.
First 90% of the work done.. next 90% to go. :)
Steven: YAY! *fanfare* *confetti cannon*
Miramon: Good problem to have, that!
Brad: That’s true for everything, pretty much.
Looking forward to it very, very much.
Woot!
It’s astonishing how fast I can go from a mellow “I didn’t expect a sequel, that’s a nice surprise” to a rabid “GEEZ, WHAT’S TAKING SO LONG, I WANT TO READ IT” ;)
All joking aside, I’m glad you guys are taking the time to make it as subtle and thought-provoking as the first one.
I can’t wait!
Also, don’t worry about her being too long, one of my other favorite authors frequently writes books over 200,000 words and I don’t think that many people mind.
Oh, hooray! Congratulations, you guys! Also, we wannnnttssss it, precious.
Fat is generally there for a reason.
Pamela
And why should I be surprised that this announcement / status report is so interestingly wrought and so much fun to read?
(OT)
(Oy vey. *Why* do the “next” and “previous post” links go by mirror time??)
James: Agreed! One of my (other) favorite authors frequently writes books with over 400k words, and he always hits #1 on the NYT bestseller list, so long obviously isn’t an issue. There are other authors I love who typically only hit around 80-100k too, so it obviously isn’t about the length, it’s about the quality. Which is one of the things I love about Steven’s work – it’s always well thought-out and high-quality, even when he’s being goofy. (:
Congrats! Exciting news.
Thanks for all the kind words.
Miramon: I’m hoping to get it to Tor in time to get comments by next VP. We’ll see.
Pamela: Damn right!