An Unfound Door - Now Comes the Hard Part
Aug. 15th, 2025 08:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingI finished my final draft of An Unfound Door, an original dark fantasy novel. Nice! Now it’s time to begin querying.
I wrote the first eight chapters of this novel between August and November of 2022 before putting the project aside to work on The Demon King. I wrote another six chapters between May and October of 2023 before once again putting the novel aside, this time to work on a bunch of short stories. I started again in May 2024 and finished the last batch of chapters in November. I’ve been editing in bits and pieces this whole time, but I started the second major round of editing in January 2025 and the third round in May. This morning, on August 15, I finished the final one-document draft.
So I guess, between August 2022 and August 2025, it took me exactly three years to write an original novel. All things considered, that sounds about right. I know some people work faster; but honestly, I think it’s really impressive that someone as ADHD as I am was able to write a novel at all.
The major obstacle was the developmental editing. I would be going along just fine and then get stuck, and I’d need to take a break to work on other things before I figured out what needed to change and how the story should move forward. I was able to write my earlier (and longer) fanfic novels in about two years flat because the characters and story beats were already there. I’m not saying that writing fanfic novels is “easier,” of course – it’s just different.
In any case, the finished draft of An Unfound Door weighs in at a little over 63,300 words, which is 210 manuscript pages. That’s about as long as my dissertation and my first nonfiction book, both of which also took about three years to finish. A lot of that time is editing, and a lot of that editing is cutting the wordcount. So if you’re looking at the numbers and thinking that they’re not very impressive, it’s important to remember that a great deal of the work is invisible.
For what it’s worth, An Unfound Door also has 22 gorgeous illustrations (one for every chapter), not to mention a phenomenally beautiful cover illustration. For the time being, that artwork is just for me, but it’s nice to know it’s there if I end up deciding to self-publish. With nothing but respect to anyone who goes that route from the beginning, I’m going to keep that option on the back burner for now.
Depending on how my finances look during the next few months, I might also see what I can do about hiring someone to do additional editing. If an agent picks up the project, I’m given to understand that their office will do a substantial amount of editing work before the manuscript is sent to acquisition editors, but I’m also going to need to be realistic about the very low likelihood of that happening.
It’s going to be tough, but I’ve decided to spend the next twelve months (until August 15, 2026) querying. New agents and small presses open to queries every week, and this process is really just a numbers game that involves doing everything you can to increase your chances of being in the right place at the right time. I’ve never been a particularly lucky person, but An Unfound Door is a good book. I hope people get to read it one day!
I wrote the first eight chapters of this novel between August and November of 2022 before putting the project aside to work on The Demon King. I wrote another six chapters between May and October of 2023 before once again putting the novel aside, this time to work on a bunch of short stories. I started again in May 2024 and finished the last batch of chapters in November. I’ve been editing in bits and pieces this whole time, but I started the second major round of editing in January 2025 and the third round in May. This morning, on August 15, I finished the final one-document draft.
So I guess, between August 2022 and August 2025, it took me exactly three years to write an original novel. All things considered, that sounds about right. I know some people work faster; but honestly, I think it’s really impressive that someone as ADHD as I am was able to write a novel at all.
The major obstacle was the developmental editing. I would be going along just fine and then get stuck, and I’d need to take a break to work on other things before I figured out what needed to change and how the story should move forward. I was able to write my earlier (and longer) fanfic novels in about two years flat because the characters and story beats were already there. I’m not saying that writing fanfic novels is “easier,” of course – it’s just different.
In any case, the finished draft of An Unfound Door weighs in at a little over 63,300 words, which is 210 manuscript pages. That’s about as long as my dissertation and my first nonfiction book, both of which also took about three years to finish. A lot of that time is editing, and a lot of that editing is cutting the wordcount. So if you’re looking at the numbers and thinking that they’re not very impressive, it’s important to remember that a great deal of the work is invisible.
For what it’s worth, An Unfound Door also has 22 gorgeous illustrations (one for every chapter), not to mention a phenomenally beautiful cover illustration. For the time being, that artwork is just for me, but it’s nice to know it’s there if I end up deciding to self-publish. With nothing but respect to anyone who goes that route from the beginning, I’m going to keep that option on the back burner for now.
Depending on how my finances look during the next few months, I might also see what I can do about hiring someone to do additional editing. If an agent picks up the project, I’m given to understand that their office will do a substantial amount of editing work before the manuscript is sent to acquisition editors, but I’m also going to need to be realistic about the very low likelihood of that happening.
It’s going to be tough, but I’ve decided to spend the next twelve months (until August 15, 2026) querying. New agents and small presses open to queries every week, and this process is really just a numbers game that involves doing everything you can to increase your chances of being in the right place at the right time. I’ve never been a particularly lucky person, but An Unfound Door is a good book. I hope people get to read it one day!
no subject
Date: 2025-08-15 06:08 pm (UTC)I didn't stick with the agent hunt long enough to actually get an agent, but if my experience back in ~2018 can be of any use: it felt like the thing that gets them to request your full manuscript is mentioning one or more previous publications in your query letter. I polished the rest of the letter to a high shine, of course, but that seemed to be the key variable.
no subject
Date: 2025-08-20 03:01 pm (UTC)I think maybe I’m part of that “born in the mid-1980s” generation that sees overt self-promotion as one of the most cringe things a creative person can do, but I’m starting to realize that this idea is probably coming from a culture where most authors are wealthy people who can afford MFAs and New York City internships and already have all the connections they need. So it’s good to remember that the tired (and probably not-so-wealthy) intern skimming my cover letter needs to be immediately impressed.
Now I just need to... get more publications... 😅
no subject
Date: 2025-08-16 12:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-08-20 02:52 pm (UTC)And every single day I’m grateful to the Final Fantasy fans who are out there in the world creating the most gorgeous artwork I’ve seen with my own eyes. If I were ultrawealthy I would fund a hundred indie game studios so all the kids who grew up thinking “I want to draw art for JRPGs” have somewhere to go and be happy.
no subject
Date: 2025-08-16 07:22 am (UTC)This also seems to be how my editing process works, and what makes it seem like it takes foorrrreeeevvveeeer XD Congratulations on completing such a large project!! Novels are hard work.
no subject
Date: 2025-08-20 02:49 pm (UTC)And I’m sending you nothing but good energy on your novel projects!
no subject
Date: 2025-08-20 05:49 pm (UTC)Fingers crossed for querying!
no subject
Date: 2025-08-21 11:24 am (UTC)