[Novel] And so it begins…

I’ve been making a lot of noise lately about that novel I want to write. Today, June 1st, is put up or shut up day.

I’ve got most of an outline. I have tons of backstory for plot and character. I even have a few synopses of varying lengths written. I’ve done a lot of initial research, but I expect I’ll be doing more as I go. In any case, I’m probably as ready as I’ll ever be–so I might as well start.

Partially as a result of all my conversations about novelling at World Horror Convention, but also because I feel like it’s finally time to start the damn thing, I decided to make my first novel a “summer project.” Given my summer schedule and the big day jobbe deadline looming, it’s probably more realistic to call this my “summer-fall” project, however.

So I’ve given myself a deadline of December 1st to finish the first draft. 183 days. That’s about 500-1000 words per day and should get me in the neighborhood of 80k-100k words by the time Yuletide rolls around. I’m sure some days I’ll do more. Some days I’ll do less. And I also will probably take at least one day off per week.

But it’s a game plan, and a schedule I think I can reasonably manage.

What’s the book about? Well, I don’t want to say too much about it just yet other than that it’s a sort of fantasy/horror dieselpunk. As envisioned, it’s for adults, though I have had some friends suggest it could be YA if I wanted to go that way. We’ll see. It’s not the novel I thought would be my first, but this story has taken hold of me and will not let go. I guess that’s a good sign, right?

Since this is the first time I’ve tackled a book (okay, I completed Nanowrimo once, but that was so seat-of-the-pants), I wondered if any of you folks had some advice? What should I worry about? What should I not worry about? I’m excited about the prospect of bumbling around in the dark, but would also be grateful if someone would lend me a candle…

I will no doubt be posting about my progress here as I go, but for now–here goes!