Rick Gualtieri writes about things like vampires and bigfoot, and his books sound brilliant although I can't honestly recommend them only because I haven't yet gotten around to reading them. He also blogs about writing at The Poptart Manifesto.
The Blogging Doldrums
I’m currently in the middle of writing The Mourning Woods, the third book in my foul-mouthed comedy series about a dorky vampire namedBill who’s been thrust into a world he isn’t ready for, and that definitely isn’t ready for him. Being smack dab in the middle of what I call writing mode definitely has its perks, not the least of which is constantly being able to pull more and more ideas out of the old grey matter. However, there is one definite drawback. For some reason, whenever I am in writing mode, that portion of my brain that comes up with blog post ideas just up and burns out...
Well, Rick's not the only one affected by this phenomenon (see above). But at least the novel's coming on well: the '>' bits of my daily '>1000 words' have just added up to an extra 1000, putting me at just over 68 000 words total, and an estimated two thirds of the way through.
How long is a novel supposed to be, anyway? No two estimates agree. But I digress.
...I could’ve been hit by a bus. But more than likely, barring any obituaries showing up in your local paper regarding bald men with hard to pronounce Italian names, it means that I’m busy killing off my brain cells in the mad pursuit of finishing another book...
Please don't get hit by a bus. It would be a terrible shame if you didn't finish the book, and I never got to find out what happens to Bill.
Funnily enough Gualtieri never struck me as hard to pronounce, which I guess probably means I'm getting it wrong. But I only have to write it, so that's ok.
...No idea why my mind works this way, after all one would think that all of our creative ideas come from one place, and if that lump of cells can spit out a plot point for one thing, then surely it came do so for another...
I always attributed it to that lump of cells only having so much creative juice to go around, so more novelling => less blogging.
..When calls came out for the A-Z Blog Challenge, I was like “yeah right!” I knew I’d be lucky to get out one post, let alone 26...
I had a pretty similar thought, and I haven't even attempted the challenge. Good luck to those brave souls who are.
The rest is here.
Hey, Carrie,
ReplyDeleteGlad I'm not alone floating in this directionless sea of blogging. :)
Btw, you're wrong on novel length. Most of us can agree that the correct novel length is whenever the story is done. :)
If you're about 2/3 done, you'll probably wind up in the 90k size range, which is pretty healthy for an eBook / about 350 pgs in paperback. Of course this isn't even talking about editing which may increase or decrease the size by X thousand words. Lots of fun to come, I can tell you.
Now quit screwing around and get back to writing. ;)
Oh I'm certainly not writing to a quota (besides a daily productivity quota). I've just been trying to find out how the probable length of my novel compares, but everyone has wildly different estimates of a 'typical' length.
DeleteI LOVE Bill ;).
DeleteOh and my books range from 60,000 - 90,000. I always end up cutting a lot during edits. My 90,000 novel was once at 140,000 lol crazy huh
I think I might have quite a lot to cut as well. If 90k is only 350 pages, I sort of hope I don't end up with much less than that, but if it's short, it's short.
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