31,302 Words and Sinking
31,302 Words and Sinking
They say there is despair in week two. You look at what you have written and call it crap. They tell you not to quit. If you are going to quit, do not do it until week three. There will be a huge upsurgence, they say, and everything will begin to click. Click, click, CLIck, cliCK, CKICK like a cricket in heat. You will yell, “Hallelujah!!” and you will even know how to spell it!!
They are right. There is despair in week two. I am going to make 50,000 words. I will probably make 75,000 or 100,000. I’m still not going to have a novel. I am going to have pieces of plot, segments of story, portions, morsels, crumbs. Crumbly crumbs . . . the dry kind that won’t stick together. Like snow that won’t make a snow man, it won’t even make a snow ball, it just sticks to your mittens. The worst part is being left with people. People who live in your brain, but will never make it on to paper in a concise enough way to make a book.
I keep entertaining myself with the size of Jean Aural’s “Clan of the Cave Bear” or “And Ladies of the Club,” which was huge. Good grief, look at Harry Potter! Word on the street has it that they paid her by the word after book one, hence, the length. Perhaps I will wake up tomorrow and find out that Bloomsbury has called and wants to pay me by the word . . .
Tad Williams! I adore Tad Williams - Book Number Three of the ‘Dragon Bone Chair’ series had to be split into two books, each topping 800 pages. That is 1,600 pages for one book! Tad Williams!! I say to myself during moments of insomnia. Tad Williams . . .
I’ve been an editor. Though in a different medium, I know perfectly well that a first novel that is too big to lift is going to be tipped into the slush pile without being opened. I know perfectly well that a first novel that won’t hang together and is piece meal . . . is going to end up in the same place. We can add cherry syrup and make a snow cone.
Tad Williams . . . says the first voice.
Slush Pile . . . answers the second.
So . . . I wrote for awhile tonight, I went over what I’ve got and then I put a conditioner pack on my hair and one of those ginseng peel off masks on my face. In the first place, when you are feeling despairish, it is kind of fun to rip your face off. In the second place, it looks like I’m going to have to rely on my good looks in the end after all.
The novel, or lack of thereto, did not cause my insomnia, it just gave it focus.
AFTER ALL SCARLET . . .
They say there is despair in week two. You look at what you have written and call it crap. They tell you not to quit. If you are going to quit, do not do it until week three. There will be a huge upsurgence, they say, and everything will begin to click. Click, click, CLIck, cliCK, CKICK like a cricket in heat. You will yell, “Hallelujah!!” and you will even know how to spell it!!
They are right. There is despair in week two. I am going to make 50,000 words. I will probably make 75,000 or 100,000. I’m still not going to have a novel. I am going to have pieces of plot, segments of story, portions, morsels, crumbs. Crumbly crumbs . . . the dry kind that won’t stick together. Like snow that won’t make a snow man, it won’t even make a snow ball, it just sticks to your mittens. The worst part is being left with people. People who live in your brain, but will never make it on to paper in a concise enough way to make a book.
I keep entertaining myself with the size of Jean Aural’s “Clan of the Cave Bear” or “And Ladies of the Club,” which was huge. Good grief, look at Harry Potter! Word on the street has it that they paid her by the word after book one, hence, the length. Perhaps I will wake up tomorrow and find out that Bloomsbury has called and wants to pay me by the word . . .
Tad Williams! I adore Tad Williams - Book Number Three of the ‘Dragon Bone Chair’ series had to be split into two books, each topping 800 pages. That is 1,600 pages for one book! Tad Williams!! I say to myself during moments of insomnia. Tad Williams . . .
I’ve been an editor. Though in a different medium, I know perfectly well that a first novel that is too big to lift is going to be tipped into the slush pile without being opened. I know perfectly well that a first novel that won’t hang together and is piece meal . . . is going to end up in the same place. We can add cherry syrup and make a snow cone.
Tad Williams . . . says the first voice.
Slush Pile . . . answers the second.
So . . . I wrote for awhile tonight, I went over what I’ve got and then I put a conditioner pack on my hair and one of those ginseng peel off masks on my face. In the first place, when you are feeling despairish, it is kind of fun to rip your face off. In the second place, it looks like I’m going to have to rely on my good looks in the end after all.
The novel, or lack of thereto, did not cause my insomnia, it just gave it focus.
AFTER ALL SCARLET . . .
posted by Unknown | 1:04 AM
2 Comments:
Hang in there winnie, you know you can do this - we know you can do this. My angels are there by your side. Megan xxxx
Sweetie, you just keep grinding along. You're getting closer to the moment when it all bursts forth like a waterfall during snow-melt The words will flow, and all those people in your head, well, they'll tumble onto the paper and scramble into their places in the theme of your story.
Love and hugs, Vi
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