Sun, 02 Jan 2005
And now ...
It really is finished! Modulo an all-nighter to read
through it checking for continuity errors while it was still
fresh in mind. The effect of GLASSHOUSE is ... well, I'm not
sure: I started out planning to write a John Varley novel but
I seem to have ended up with equal parts Philip K. Dick and
Franz Kafka, by way of The Stepford Wives, The Prisoner, and
Starship Troopers.
But this time round, the pacing works properly and the ending
fits neatly on top of the build-up rather than being "book stops
here". I really am going to have to work on not having to
re-write endings extensively -- it's a major overhead.
On the subject of overheads, the wasted word count on GLASSHOUSE was
smaller than on most previous novels. I ended up with a total word
of 126,000 words in the final manuscript, and 9,200 words left on the
cutting room floor. (Aren't word processors great?) Compared to IRON
SUNRISE (finished in 2002) this is a big improvement -- IRON SUNRISE
ran to 145,000 words but ended up with about 75,000 words left
over. SINGULARITY SKY was much worse, to such an extent that I probably
wrote the damn thing twice. I'm still worried about the wastage, mostly
because I don't seem to have any significant amount when I'm writing
fantasy or horror (the amount in GLASSHOUSE would be annoyingly
large), but at least it's coming under control. Experience, I
guess.
And I shall shortly begin talking about something else, for a
change.
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