The White Lily (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thewhitelily) wrote2008-09-22 09:33 pm
thewhitelily) wrote2008-09-22 09:33 pm
Entry tags:
25,000 words
Feels like we've been here before, doesn't it?
This, however, is a significantly prouder moment. This is 25,000 words edited. Not super-shiny-zomg-hand-me-that-booker-prize edited, but... good second draft edited. Plenty of gaps, plenty of omissions, but really not much in the way of anything actually incorrect or out of line with what's turning out to be the final story and incidentally a decent serving of damn, I'm awesome.
It's also really beginning to feel like my own writing. Like something I can be proud of.
I'm tightening and weaving and Lilying away, and it's just... coming together. Not gently, not peaceably, but coming together. Every week or so I burst out of my study yelling "I've solved the last major plot difficulty!" (Until the next one.)
I'm constantly working on what I'm certain is the absolute most pivotally important scene in the novel. There's hardly anything in there that's not doing at least triple duty on various elements of the plots and characters, because until I know what those three or five or whatever different things a scene's going to convey, it doesn't take a concrete enough form in my head that I actually have a chance at writing it. It's like 25,000 words of drabble. (Second draft drabble, of course, but still.)
On a more worrying note as far as drabbles go, I suspect the narrative as it is going will not end up too much over 30,000 words. Which is a little surprising, since it used to be a pretty healthy 50,000, complete with plenty of sketchiness and not-quite-sure-what-goes-here, which would usually require more words for elaboration. What that all means for a publishable manuscript, I'm not sure. Would definitely put it in the range of novella rather than full novel, but even then...
I'm trying not to worry about it. I really don't want to be trying to stretch my polished version for more words - that way madness lies - as well as exceedingly poor writing. I tend not to have that much control over the length of my stories; they take however long it takes to tell them, and at this stage it's very difficult to judge what's not there because it's left to be written and what's not there because it doesn't need to be. It could be there's another fifty k to go just getting the story out, because I know I'm a bad estimator.
And even if that's not the case, the way things are going, I'm quite sure it's ending up too fast paced. One action-packed plot development scene gets crammed in cheek by jowl with the next in a way that doesn't really give the reader time to absorb what's going on, like some kind of narrative plot summary. I'll need to do an extra pass through concentrating on not just tightening and triple-dutying the narrative, but also occasionally stopping to smell the roses (or, you know, open sewers), which should give me plenty more length.
Ah well, it's been nearly two years getting me this far. Just keep swimming, eh?
This, however, is a significantly prouder moment. This is 25,000 words edited. Not super-shiny-zomg-hand-me-that-booker-prize edited, but... good second draft edited. Plenty of gaps, plenty of omissions, but really not much in the way of anything actually incorrect or out of line with what's turning out to be the final story and incidentally a decent serving of damn, I'm awesome.
It's also really beginning to feel like my own writing. Like something I can be proud of.
I'm tightening and weaving and Lilying away, and it's just... coming together. Not gently, not peaceably, but coming together. Every week or so I burst out of my study yelling "I've solved the last major plot difficulty!" (Until the next one.)
I'm constantly working on what I'm certain is the absolute most pivotally important scene in the novel. There's hardly anything in there that's not doing at least triple duty on various elements of the plots and characters, because until I know what those three or five or whatever different things a scene's going to convey, it doesn't take a concrete enough form in my head that I actually have a chance at writing it. It's like 25,000 words of drabble. (Second draft drabble, of course, but still.)
On a more worrying note as far as drabbles go, I suspect the narrative as it is going will not end up too much over 30,000 words. Which is a little surprising, since it used to be a pretty healthy 50,000, complete with plenty of sketchiness and not-quite-sure-what-goes-here, which would usually require more words for elaboration. What that all means for a publishable manuscript, I'm not sure. Would definitely put it in the range of novella rather than full novel, but even then...
I'm trying not to worry about it. I really don't want to be trying to stretch my polished version for more words - that way madness lies - as well as exceedingly poor writing. I tend not to have that much control over the length of my stories; they take however long it takes to tell them, and at this stage it's very difficult to judge what's not there because it's left to be written and what's not there because it doesn't need to be. It could be there's another fifty k to go just getting the story out, because I know I'm a bad estimator.
And even if that's not the case, the way things are going, I'm quite sure it's ending up too fast paced. One action-packed plot development scene gets crammed in cheek by jowl with the next in a way that doesn't really give the reader time to absorb what's going on, like some kind of narrative plot summary. I'll need to do an extra pass through concentrating on not just tightening and triple-dutying the narrative, but also occasionally stopping to smell the roses (or, you know, open sewers), which should give me plenty more length.
Ah well, it's been nearly two years getting me this far. Just keep swimming, eh?
Go Lilly!
(Anonymous) 2008-09-24 06:31 am (UTC)(link)TPWFL
Re: Go Lilly! (sic)
(Anonymous) 2008-09-30 10:01 am (UTC)(link)TPWFL
Re: Go Lilly! (sic)
Re: Go Lilly! (sic)
(Anonymous) 2008-10-16 10:15 pm (UTC)(link)Re: Go Lilly!