Check out 1-6 here.
#7: 80,000 words is a LOT of words.
#8: You are not in charge, your characters are. They'll want to change things. For the good of you both (and the good of the story) let them have their way.
#9: Be able to sum up your hero and heroine's conflict - what they want versus what they need - in a paragraph.
8 comments:
Hey! How many words again is too many? Is there a "golden rule" on word count. I have a few chapters totalling more than 2,000 words. Typeset all but a couple of handwritten legal size pages in third chapter and am already above the 2,000 words in it. Average about 14 legal size pages per chapter so far. But, am getting through it. Thinking the book will probably be two part and pretty long based on the legal pads and where I am so far in the story. Having all kinds of brain storms as to where it will lead. Surprising my hubby along the way, as he can't leave my legal pads alone and reads the chapters as he sees them having been added. :)
"80,000 words is a LOT of words"
No kidding! Especially by the time you're done editing.
Jen, fortunately my husband doesn't like to read! I don't want anyone to read it until I'm completely done with the second draft.
Well, my husband has been real busy this week. So, don't know if he has read much lately. But, he thinks he has it figured out.
Okay, Chapter 1-2,385 words, 2- 2,586 and Chapter 3 - 3,314 words. Overboard on Chapt. 3?
Finished handwriting Chapter 10 Friday night.
Will typeset Chapter 4 tomorrow (or begin to).
Just write it, Jen. You can worry about chapter divisions later. My chapters vary from 2,000-5,000 words in my rough draft. Others may disagree with me, but as far as I'm concerned, the main purpose of chapters at this point is to protect my electronic files by saving the manuscript in segments, so that if one file gets corrupted I don't lose the whole thing ... which has happened to me before. I unknowingly copied the corrupted file to the backup disk so I lost that too.
Jen, I still can't believe you write on legal pads first ... but whatever works! I'm a sit at the computer type of girl.
My chapters range between 2,000 - 2,500 words, but it varies for different writers.
Also, 12,000 is a lot of words. I'm working on the Max Lucado book and it's taking me FOREVER. Maybe because Max's writing is so great that I'm humbled to work on this project and I'm taking longer than I usually would.
The legal pads help me in that I don't edit as I go. I have always edited my writing on the computer as I type... regardless of the writing I am doing. This slows me down. Plus, no laptop to take wherever I go. So, I can bring along the legal pads and jot my thoughts immediately. Then, edit as I typeset. Perhaps one day will have a laptop for the on-the-go thoughts/additions. But, for now, legal pads are convenient and low-cost. ;)
Okay, so I am glad to hear I am not making my chapters too long. I was just afraid of bogging each one with too much info for the reader to process per chapter.
I didn't get that fourth chapter typeset over the weekend. :( But, had a lot of quality time with the family. Took the kids with me on my assignments, allowing for time at the pool. BBQ'd steak dinner and BBQ'd baked potatoes for hubby on Father's Day. Tonight is a swim meet. So, will write more tomorrow. :) Feeling pretty good about balancing family and work with my endeavors.
Jen, I know what you mean about the legal pads vs the computer. I had to do a lot of writing in college and for my professional job, so I got used to doing rough drafts on the computer. But I do keep notebooks everywhere so I can jot things down when the occur to me.
I also have a whiteboard in the kitchen that holds some strange stuff. Right now I'm working on the lore of my fantasy kingdom, and last night after dinner I jotted: "Does not the Book of Wisdom say that the poor man dies of his poverty and the great man of his greatness?" And there is a notepad on the dining room table with a page-long speech by the Christ-figure in the book which starts out "I am the Creator and the Finisher, the Maker and Un-maker..." I have no idea what my husband thought when he woke up at 5:30 this morning and saw it there!
Hahaha ... yeah, I wonder what people think sometimes.
So yesterday I called my friend's husband.
"Okay, I need a gun ... six shots and it has to wound but not kill a horse. I need it to be able to be concelled, and the wound has to get infected."
He gave me the details and told me the type of gun I needed. Hmmm ... I wonder what someone would think if they were listening in and didn't realize I was talking about my book!
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