My word count hit 100,000 and I realized my main character has no job

I was celebrating finishing the first draft of my fantasy novel when I checked the stats. The file said 100,042 words, which felt huge. Then it hit me: my hero has been on this quest for six months in the story, but I never gave him a way to pay for food or a place to sleep. He's just been wandering around, and I wrote it all without noticing. Has anyone else missed something this basic for that long?

3 comments

3 Comments

angela_miller7516d ago

Feel your pain so much. I once wrote a whole mystery where the detective never asked a single question, just sort of nodded at people. It's amazing what our brains fill in while we're drafting. For your guy, maybe he's been doing odd jobs in towns or bartering his skills. That first draft is just for getting the story down, you can patch the logic holes later.

terry_thomas16d ago

But what if the logic holes are the whole point, @angela_miller75?

patriciap5211d ago

Honestly that "first draft is just for getting the story down" thing from @angela_miller75 is so true. Tbh I've got a whole folder of drafts where nothing makes sense yet.