Mist and Shadows

Hard to believe but we are already one week into the new year.  Just fifty one more to go.

In terms of writing output these weeks has been my most productive to date – around 14,500 words.  Not quite at my stated goal of 20,000, but that it largely due to me not putting in a proper effort at times and get distracted when I shouldn’t have been.

Of that 9K was for a mostly completed synopsis/outline for the as of yet untitled work I started on New Years Day.  The next question is if I continue on with it or, as normal, get distracted by something else.

The rest was scattered amongst various short storied in various stages of writing.  Around 3250 words were on a new short story, called for now The Pit, that is getting close to being finished in the next day or two.  When it is I will be posting it up for people to read.

Second day of the year wasn’t as profitable as the first, as relatives were visiting the state and in the afternoon we were out for a meal, not getting home until just before midnight.  A few hours of writing time were lost there.

Still, managed around 2500 more words in the morning, pushing the total to around 6500 for the first two days of the year, so we are still on overall schedule.

Part of that was the continuing serialised story of Cara’s Choice, a bit more was continued work on The Bronze Man short story, and around 1000 words was on the new, untitled, project (which is over 5000 words into the draft plot now).  The way The Bronze Man is going – over 6000 words already – I fell it is more likely to end up a Novella than a Short Story when it is finished and then subsequently polished

Well, the first day of the new year has been and gone, and amazingly I kept to schedule.  Possibly even ahead of it.

The total for the day was 4006 words completed at the end.  Could have done more as there were a couple of hours where I got sidetracked by TV Tropes – bad me.

But if I keep that up the weekly goals should be achievable.  Of course some days I’ll have more time than others, which is why that wasted time yesterday should have been put to better use.

Oh, and those 4000 words yesterday?  I fell back into bad habits and started another new project.  Well, sort of new.  The story already existed in my head and in brief notes from way back.  For some reason I felt inspired to start writing it.  I really have to stop doing that.

It is a more traditional and less niche story than Winter Wolves though, so may have more appeal.  Winter Wolves won’t be going away though.

What can be said about week five? In terms of writing, not very much at all. I probably managed a total of 1000 words total for the week.

I suppose though, given that it was Christmas, then there is some excuse for that. A week with no writing though has thrown me somewhat. I’m trying to sit down and write again but it just hasn’t clicked yet, and the next couple of days promise to be a little busy as well.

New Years is just around the corner, so hopefully it can provide a fresh start.

Oh yeah, I’m experimenting a little with the theme for the webpage – it may change a little and things may move a bit but hopefully no links get broken.

So far I’m about 12,000 words and three chapters (plus a prologue) into the rewrite of the synopsis and I have decided to do a restructure of the plot to date.

Seems a bit abrupt given how early I am into it, but on looking at what had been written to date, it didn’t quite seem to work in the order it was written in.

It started off with a battle – nothing wrong in and of itself – except in this case it seemed to be in the wrong spot.

So I am starting off by scrapping the prologue and folding it into the new Chapter One. The old chapter one will have a part in the new chapter one, but will mostly be in two and three. The old chapter two will mostly be the new chapter one, with part in the new chapter two, while the old chapter three will remain mostly in chapter three.

It will need a bit of editing to get right, but I feel it will flow much better when done.

I guess that is one of those question that, like how long is a piece of string, has no real answer, yet is a question many starting authors ask themselves. At least I know I have.

Looking around, the answer varies depending on who you ask. Some say 60-100,000 words, others 100-150,000. It also does vary between author and genre. Some tend to the shorter, while others, most especially fantasy, tend to the epic (in the truest sense of the word), clocking in at quarter of a million words or more, large enough to bludgeon someone to death with. Oft times a story could be told in 100,000 words yet still weigh in at 250,000, in book after book, reduced to a turgidity of shallow, endless characters and plots that no longer make sense, and the only reason they see light of day is to cash in on a name or because of contractual obligations (which, ironically, was the name of a Monty Python album), and should be allowed to die peacefully, but continue on and on, rather like this sentence.

For myself, I am often guilty of over planning things, to the point that they interfere in the doing of the plans. I like to work to a set target, of a set number of chapters. I have always had in mind a target of a prologue (though that is falling from favour) and twenty one chapters, each of around 3-5,000 words, preferably 4000, the chapters split into three parts, the start of the story, the middle of the story and the end of the story. A lot of advice I have seen is not to worry so much about the length, but just write until the story is done. My mind really doesn’t work that way. Hopefully that screwy brain-wiring won’t cause problems for me.