I’m still working hard to remove words. So far I don’t think I’ve done much damage to the story, though it might read a better with some more description and details. At some point, I’ll have to delete some scenes that I think will hurt the story, those will be some painful cuts. Now I’ve …
Category Archives: The Book
More Making Less
I just cut out a mighty chunk of 3,000 words. I think it takes away from the story some, but sacrifices will have to be made to get my word count down. The reason I’m going through the effort is twofold. First, it’s good to go through and remove whatever seems unneeded. Maybe it’s a …
Plot, Detail, and Word Count
147k words and counting . . . backwards. Right now I’m trying to squeeze as many words as I can out of “The Dead Mountain”. Partly, that’s because the longer a book is, the harder it’ll be to get published. However, it also makes for a better book period. I can see the flow improving …
Map!
I have a map now. Technically, I had a map before, but it became wildly out of date and this one is much prettier. I don’t think a map is necessary for the book, really, but it does help me stay a bit more consistent.
Been Busy
I’ve been busy lately, both with writing and with the day job. However, I’m still pushing hard to finish this revision. Something else I just realized, as in right now as I’m typing these very words: it’s been 1 year since I started work on this book. A year is a lot of time to …
Go Big Or Go Home
I’m still chipping away at Chapter 54 in my first revision. My wife read my first attempt at a revised chapter 54 and it didn’t work for her. The characters went from point A to point B way too fast. I knew exactly what she meant. I was already spending way more words than I …
Hmmm…
“What? I was supposed to ask your permission?” — Aimee I made good progress on 23, but it’s taking longer to get past the new stuff than I thought. Thank goodness I cut out a bunch of stuff at this point in the plot. I guess I will press onward with 23 until I hit …
Word Count
“Don’t you dare tell me you don’t want this” — Holly My rough draft weighs in at 178,000 word. In other words, way too many. I’ve mapped out my plot and I’m thinking I’ll be able to wrangle down the next revision to 120,000 words or less. That’ll be much more manageable. On the one …
The Great Battle
I can see it coming now, the great battle of the next revision is going to be word count vs. detail. The setting needs to be a little richer and I need to establish a feel for the kind of society that exists. I think the idea that the society has technology founded on magic …
Aimee
“It’s just wonderful to know that I mean less to you than a woman who has absolutely no respect for you.” — Aimee Aimee is the main character of my story, but that hasn’t always been the case. When I took my original try at writing a book, the main character was named Karlac and …