Yellow Roses
Another day, another couple of characters killed. I apparently broke the internets, since Zokutou's word meter is missing and others suck. So you'll just have to take my word for it that YR stands at 73,924 words. My goal was 80,000, and I'll make that easily, but longer is better, I suppose. Some publishers are starting at 90K for a first novel these days, though I wouldn't want to go over 100K. Not until they knows me better. :)
Today was a day of failed research. I sought a protection spell, reading up in MONSTERS by John Michael Greer and firing off emails to people who might know, but I haven't found what I wanted and I don't know if the scene will be in the book anyway.
I also took a stab (pardon the expression) at courthouse security research, but that scene is already written. Still, I hope the attempt gains some fruit, since I'd like to catch any egregious errors at this phase.
I've been ultra-paranoid about language lately. A bit of constructive criticism is bringing things to my attention that tend to slip by me. The fact is, I'm about the plot. Tell me what's happening, who's doing what to whom and what they're saying about it. Language, description, emotion... that all takes effort. I think that's why I have word-count problems.
But I can't afford to make that mistake. As the plot rolls through, I need to keep it moving, but I have to fight the impulse to write faster and faster and forget about the language. I already know there will be a line edit before this goes out to submission, but I don't want the line edit to become yet another rewrite because I got sloppy.
I love this book so much. That's always dangerous. Very soon I will have lost all perspective whatsoever, and it will be time to put it away. But will it be DONE by then?
Today was a day of failed research. I sought a protection spell, reading up in MONSTERS by John Michael Greer and firing off emails to people who might know, but I haven't found what I wanted and I don't know if the scene will be in the book anyway.
I also took a stab (pardon the expression) at courthouse security research, but that scene is already written. Still, I hope the attempt gains some fruit, since I'd like to catch any egregious errors at this phase.
I've been ultra-paranoid about language lately. A bit of constructive criticism is bringing things to my attention that tend to slip by me. The fact is, I'm about the plot. Tell me what's happening, who's doing what to whom and what they're saying about it. Language, description, emotion... that all takes effort. I think that's why I have word-count problems.
But I can't afford to make that mistake. As the plot rolls through, I need to keep it moving, but I have to fight the impulse to write faster and faster and forget about the language. I already know there will be a line edit before this goes out to submission, but I don't want the line edit to become yet another rewrite because I got sloppy.
I love this book so much. That's always dangerous. Very soon I will have lost all perspective whatsoever, and it will be time to put it away. But will it be DONE by then?
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