I finished writing my novel last night. I should say that I finished writing it again, because technically I thought I finished it about a year ago. This time is different, though, because I finished what was originally going to be the second novel, which means the full story is complete for the first time.

There are caveats, of course. The last chapter is only in a first-and-a-half draft state, and the last two chapters haven’t faced the withering scrutiny of my critique partner, let alone my bank of awesome beta readers.

Also, it’s sitting at 155,000 words. That means I not only have a LOT of polishing to do, I have to cut out 35,000 damned words before I can start shopping it out again. In the SciFi realm, no agent will touch a first time author with a manuscript longer than 120,000 words—90,000-120,000 words is the range most will consider.

But, this is a big deal for me. I have learned a lot about writing during the last two years, and the book I just completed is head and shoulders above the book I thought I finished a year ago.

For one thing, as noted above, the full story is now complete. I had tried to break it up into two books beause I was being lazy. The new book has a brand new beginning that’s exciting and takes us right into the action. If I can trim it down without losing the soul and voice of the story, it will be good.

More importantly, I think it will be sellable. Time will tell if that’s the case, of course.