when writing gets cut short
The first major writing project I worked on kept getting longer. It was a series, and the first draft of the final book topped off at 105,000 words or so. This was a little bit of a problem, because, generally, books get longer for me as I rewrite them. The first draft of the first book was 50k, and at this point, at its end, its completion, it's-self-published-now-so-I'm-not-changing-it-again, it's 82k. Same with OMSS--started out at about 40k, ended up at about 80k, though that one's not out in the world so that one could still grow.
My first drafts are short now. I'm not sure if this means I'm getting impatient, if it means I really need to actually work harder or if it means I've learned how to be concise. Metallica project--the rewrite wasn't all that much longer than the first draft, and it's not even novel-length. It's a full-on novella, somewhere around 40k. NaNoWriMo this year I fucked up. My project was done at 37k. I wrote and I wrote and then I had to accept that it was done and pull up 13k of bullshit out of some other project.
My current rewrite is going to be too short. It's a shame, because it's kind of along the same veins as the WM3 project, which was a whole... weird situation in and of itself, which reminds me, I need to write a query letter for that one because I'm about ready to start querying that instead of OMSS, because, I'm sorry Zeke, but you're being shelved for the moment. But this current rewrite has four chapters left and I've barely broken 20k. This was also a NaNoWriMo project. This was 50k.
I dunno, something just kind of scares me that I used up all of my ideas that would bring me more than fifty thousand words when I was a teenager. Rewriting the books in that first series I mentioned, they always have enough story. Maybe it's a matter of not having enough for the characters. Enough love, enough knowledge of--I don't know. I know these characters. I know the characters in OMSS, too; the main character in that one is maybe the closest I've ever been to putting my emotional state in a book, which is weird, considering he is an emotionally stunted teenage skateboarder who is in love with his best friend, but like, I really latched onto the 'emotionally stunted' bit.
But I don't know if that's the case, either. SKWC, Stupid-Ass Murders--I got really into those characters. I always forget that I rewrote that first book, but I loved those guys. I wrote four books about them, and it has maybe my best female main character I've ever written--
I don't know. I'm at the point where I've written so many first drafts and done so many projects that my hard drive is a mess. My head is a mess. My heart is a mess. I don't know what I'm doing.
My first drafts are short now. I'm not sure if this means I'm getting impatient, if it means I really need to actually work harder or if it means I've learned how to be concise. Metallica project--the rewrite wasn't all that much longer than the first draft, and it's not even novel-length. It's a full-on novella, somewhere around 40k. NaNoWriMo this year I fucked up. My project was done at 37k. I wrote and I wrote and then I had to accept that it was done and pull up 13k of bullshit out of some other project.
My current rewrite is going to be too short. It's a shame, because it's kind of along the same veins as the WM3 project, which was a whole... weird situation in and of itself, which reminds me, I need to write a query letter for that one because I'm about ready to start querying that instead of OMSS, because, I'm sorry Zeke, but you're being shelved for the moment. But this current rewrite has four chapters left and I've barely broken 20k. This was also a NaNoWriMo project. This was 50k.
I dunno, something just kind of scares me that I used up all of my ideas that would bring me more than fifty thousand words when I was a teenager. Rewriting the books in that first series I mentioned, they always have enough story. Maybe it's a matter of not having enough for the characters. Enough love, enough knowledge of--I don't know. I know these characters. I know the characters in OMSS, too; the main character in that one is maybe the closest I've ever been to putting my emotional state in a book, which is weird, considering he is an emotionally stunted teenage skateboarder who is in love with his best friend, but like, I really latched onto the 'emotionally stunted' bit.
But I don't know if that's the case, either. SKWC, Stupid-Ass Murders--I got really into those characters. I always forget that I rewrote that first book, but I loved those guys. I wrote four books about them, and it has maybe my best female main character I've ever written--
I don't know. I'm at the point where I've written so many first drafts and done so many projects that my hard drive is a mess. My head is a mess. My heart is a mess. I don't know what I'm doing.
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