Jeff Haws

Independent author

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Your First Look at the Cover for My Novel

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almost-there-sign

I’d imagine few things make the whole “I’m going to publish a book” thing feel more real than the day you receive your book’s cover from the designer. It’s one of those moments where it starts to come to life, where you see the first artistic vision of the world you created with words.

That’s the step I’ve reached. I’ve been running through some options with my designer, along with a revision or two, and now I’m ready to reveal the cover for my first novel. Take a look below. [Read more…] about Your First Look at the Cover for My Novel

5 Lessons from Writing Half a Book

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Lessons

I went into this book with the assumption that it’ll end up being between 80,000 and 100,000 words, which is pretty standard for a novel. In fact, 80,000-90,000 is even more in the sweet spot. Of course, I have no idea if things will work out like I planned, but it’s a pretty decent bet that’ll be my range.

As such, I’m halfway-ish there. On Monday night, I hit 40,000 words on my 25th day of writing, then 50,000 on the 28th day. Looking at what I’ve written and thinking about what’s left, I could see this being about a halfway point. But the characters could surprise the hell out of me and decide to do something I’m totally not anticipating. And, while that’d be kind of fun, I might have to take one of them aside and have a little conversation if they try to lead me too far astray at this point.

This is easily the furthest into a story I’ve ever been, and I’ve learned a lot during the process — particularly since I went into this not knowing hardly a damn thing. Here’s the 5 biggest lessons I’ve gotten so far: [Read more…] about 5 Lessons from Writing Half a Book