And the winning number is....

...82,090.

Yes, novel-fans, 82,090 words is the grand total for the first rough draft of Word Nerd's novel.

That's shorter yes than her targeted 85,000 but close enough that she feels that her original target was a good prediction of how long it would take to tell the story. As revisions occur, the word count will fluctuate anyway. Likely up... the more Word Nerd thinks about it, it's likely little things she'll need to add. And with her penchant for leaving out little words like "up" or "for" while she types there are probably another 100 words right there when she adds all those in.

So, if you're asking when will you be able to read Word Nerd's novel, well, the answer is maybe. Someday. There's quite a bit of work that has to happen yet. Word Nerd's taking at least a week off before starting revisions. Then, if she decides to send it out, an agent has to like it also. And then if there's an agent that likes it, then a publishing house has to like it and then it may end up on the shelf of a bookstore near you. There's also the very real possibility that as Word Nerd works through revisions, it will become obvious that this particular manuscript doesn't have enough merit to make sending it out worthwhile.

Sometimes, the things that Word Nerd writes are just for practice. That may even mean a whole novel.

But practice or no, the rough draft is still done.