Don't let the title fool you: My latest project is not Epic, it's not Fantasy and it only barely qualifies as a Novel. (The spaces in between the words are, however, 100% accurate!)
With that out of the way, I am pleased to announce that I have just finished the first draft of a new novel, currently under the working title of "Epic Fantasy Novel".
The total word count is a measly 72,120 words, meaning it's closer to being a novella than a novel and by far the shortest book I've written since becoming a semi-professional novelist.
Despite the title, it's not an epic fantasy novel--it's actually a romantic tragicomedy about a delusional 42 year old man called Dave who believes he's the main character in a fantasy novel, and goes on an "epic" quest to win back his ex-girlfriend after getting dumped.
It's short, silly and simple. There are no existential philosophical ramblings, or surrealist sequences--just a beginning, a middle and an end. I consider this book to be something of a "potboiler" -- quick and full of dumb jokes because no one has the attention span to read anything else these days, and I didn't have the time or energy to write anything more complex either.
There were 41 total writing days, beginning on August 9th and ending on October 5th, writing around 1500 words per day, 5 days per week.
Here's a graph I did of how much I wrote in each writing session:
This is the most "pantsed" novel I've written since 2019. While I did write an outline, I ended up throwing the outline out within about three pages and making everything else up as I went along--which probably goes a long way toward explaining the questionable quality of the end result.
I can't promise this will ever see the light of publication. I do have serious reservations about the quality of the writing (mainly because I prioritised "Is this funny?" over "Does this make sense?") but I will leave it in my drawer for the next six months before judging it and attempting to bash it into a serviceable second draft sometime next year.
Other projects will take priority but if I can turn this into something that doesn't make me cringe, you can expect to read it around 2028. And if not, then this one will be joining my first three unpublished novels in my desk drawer for the rest of eternity...