Hello!

[Daniel]

I'm Daniel.

I finished writing my first novel, it's about sic-fi and the future and stuff. I am 25 and I live in London and I'm pretty happy that I finished my story. It's about 70,000 words and I'm trying to decide if I should keep writing to get the size up to ~90,000 or if I should start on the next book in the series or trying something different for a bit.

I like Gin & Tonic when I write...

Also I'm vegan and my day job is a programmer.

Hello!

 

[Emurelda]

Welcome! How fab. Congrats on your novel.

 

[Steven McC]

Welcome Daniel. I wouldn't add on another 20,000 words to your novel just for the sake of it. If you feel it's finished 70,000 words would class it as a novel.

If you're not sure what to do try leaving it be for a month and hardly even thinking about it then read it through with 'fresh' eyes. That should help you decide what it needs/the next step.

 

[Daniel]

Great, and thank you!

I am quite enjoying myself at the moment as I am trying to get through a few novels. I had an incredibly difficult time reading other books while I was writing my own. Does anyone else get that?

 

[Alistair Roberts]

Welcome. Indeed leave the novel for awhile and don't try to add to it. Usually the reverse is true. Write something else, then come back to it later with fresh eyes. They say a good author edits their novels at least 8 times

 

[Jennifer Stone]

Hello and welcome, congrats on finishing your novel. Now begins the hard task of deciding what to do next. If another story is trying to burst out, then let it. You could always give your ms to a select few to read

 

[Daniel]

I think I'm on the 5th revision now so almost near 8

I let someone I know read the first 15,000 words but it definitely didn't feel that nice letting them read it.

 

[Bernard Stacey]

Welcome, Daniel.
You'll find this a great place for ideas, tips, chit-chat and general goofing.
And I'm sure Agent Pete will approve of your veganism!

 

[Nicole Wilson]

Welcome Daniel! Congrats on getting your first novel finished. Like others here have said, sit on it for a little while and see if anything comes. Don't add for the sake of adding.

And yay for another IT person here! I'm an IT business analyst, so I work primarily with user-end software. I have beginners experience with coding but the most I usually do is HTML

 

[Daniel]

Hi Nicole, that's great. I was working on artificial intelligence for a while in university (https://medium.com/@dshields/workin...in-an-artificial-life-simulation-c6309a586e55) but at the moment I do web application development for an engineering company based in Africa. I kind of ran into a dead end working in AI. I don't think people really want machines with emotions yet, so it was hard to find a job in AI programming.

We made an android app. so engineers on site can submit forms, and the managers can view reports and project data on my website, it's a lot of fun...

 

[Karen Gray]

Welcome to the colony @Daniel You'll like it here.
Congrats on completing your first novel.

 

[Carol Rose]

Welcome!

 

[Marc Joan]

Welcome!

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Welcome! Congratulations on finishing your first novel!

 

[Mark Odell]

Welcome! London is fun, London is expensive, but do enjoy yourself on this forum

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Hello Well done on getting that novel finished! Maybe show it to a trusted person who reads sci-fi, see if they say they would have liked more depth or detail.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Welcome to The Colony - which is quite a sci-fi name, come to think of it. Congratulations on finishing your first novel. As other Colonist have suggested, it may not be fully completed until you've separated yourself from it for a while - returning to make a definitive version.

 

[Daniel]

Thanks for the all advice

 

[Damian North]

welcome onboard Daniel

 

[Jason Byrne]

Welcome Daniel — a lot of helpful individuals here, as you can see.

The best test will be sending it out once it's been sufficiently polished; if it's too short, you'll find out.