Last week I finally reached 40,865 words on novel wip #6 after one year of working on this manuscript. This draft will become Book 3 of my Belfast Ghosts Series alongside Book 1: The Blue Man and Book 2: The Fairy Lights, and will complete the trilogy.
Why do I consider 40k words a benchmark? Simply because after this point in a draft, a MS reaches novel territory and is no longer in novella range.
Out of the trilogy, I’m finding this manuscript draft the hardest to write. Normally I find writing the easiest, editing harder and marketing hardest, but this manuscript requires much more historical research than The Blue Man and The Fairy Lights and the medieval sources are scant at best. I may have to arrange an archaeological field trip for myself soon as the latter half of my book will involve much more action and although it’s a ghost horror, not a historical novel, I want the historical aspects to ring true.
But, enough spoilers for now. I’ll be sharing the blurb and other promotional teasers before too long. My short-term goal for this year is to have the draft finished by summer so that I can pass it over to my editor and proofreader for checks. Will I manage my goal of publication by October? Let’s see…
Leilanie Stewart 