A manuscript in the hand, worth two in the head.

Printed up a copy of I'M ONLY HUMAN today (yesterday, writing this) on the home computer. Took two & half hours.

Came out, around 470 pages. The margins are kinda wide, s0 a little less than 200 words per page. (I think a paperback would more likely have around 275 to 300 words per page.)

So, anyway, somewhere between 80,000 and 90,000 words. Bigger than I thought it would be.

I had to print it out chapter by chapter, and then hand number the pages.

Dammit.

This needs to be formatted better -- maybe a little less margin, so it won't take so many pages.

There is a compiled version, but I can't figure out how to access it:

Oh, hell. In the middle of this blog I texted Jared and asked if he would come over and properly format this. I'd like to get this down to less than 400 pages in manuscript form.

*****


Later: Jared came over, did his magic.

I was able to print out two more copies, just feeding the paper tray once in awhile. Took one & half hours per manuscript. Slightly more concise, about 425 pages.

Turns out to be exactly 85,900 words. (Good guess above, heh?)

There it is, stacked on the table.

It feels more real somehow to have an actual manuscript in front of me. It also makes me realize how much work it was!

Don't know how good it is, but there it is: I at least wrote it. As long as I'm not completely done, I can still try to improve it. Told Jared when he took the first printed copy to look to help make the story "fun."


What have I learned? That the writing "process" is indeed super important to me.

I think I went about it much better than ever before, much more effectively. There are a few refinements I want to make to the process the next time, but the basic approach was right.

I'm giving my critiquers a month to get the manuscript back. (Hopefully they'll have plenty of suggestions, corrections.)

I'm going to give myself a complete mental vacation from it. Then do one final draft.